GENEVA: A United Nations rights expert showed concerns on Friday over the “widespread discrimination” faced by ethnic minorities, Brexit-era hate crimes, and the immigration consequences in Britain.
The UN Special Rapporteur on racism, E. Tendayi Achiume, also expressed concern over how normalized hateful, stigmatising discourse was becoming, including among high-ranking officials, adding that the anti-migrant, anti-foreigner rhetoric developed around the campaign in favor of Brexit had become widespread in society.
“I am shocked by the criminalization of young people from ethnic minorities, especially young black men. They are over-represented in police stop and searches, more likely to face prosecution under the country’s joint enterprise provisions, and are over-represented in the prison system,” she said Friday at the end of a fact-finding visit to Britain.
“I have been informed of so-called ‘gang matrix’ databases held in several cities in England which are used as the basis for surveillance operations against young men and boys who are predominantly black and are listed as potential future violent offenders, sometimes without any basis,” she added.
Saying austerity measures were having a disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities, the UN expert called for a unified UK-level policy that lays out a comprehensive strategy and benchmarks for systemic and systematic elimination of unlawful racial disparities.
The Special Rapporteur will present her final report to the June 2019 session of the UN Human Rights Council.
