By Timo Kirez
GENEVA (AA) - A new study on racism against Black people in 13 EU countries has found that race-based discrimination is most rife in Germany and Austria.
The data showed that 76% of respondents in Germany said they were discriminated against in the past five years because of their skin color, origin, or religion, according to the report, published Wednesday by the Vienna-based EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Austria came in second, with 72% of respondents reporting discrimination,
In terms of discrimination by the police, Austria ranked first, with 53% of the men and 24% of the women surveyed said they had been stopped by police in the five years prior to the survey.
According to the survey, Black people across the 13 countries felt nowhere as strongly discriminated against as when looking for work in Austria. This was reported by 59% of respondents.
On average across all 13 countries, 45% of respondents had reported experiencing discrimination, the study added.
Poland (20%), Sweden (25%) and Portugal (26%) had the lowest figures.
In a statement on its website, the agency's director, Michael O'Flaherty, called the trend "shocking."
The organization called on EU states to collect more accurate data on racist incidents and to impose harsher punishments for racially motivated crimes.