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Muslims and black people discriminated against in Austria, new report reveals

Austrian anti-racism NGO Zara released its Racism Report 2022, documenting discrimination cases in the Alpine country.

Published: 21 March 2023 13:13 CET
Updated: 21 March 2023 16:45 CET
vienna pedestrian street 1st district and tourism center
(Photo by Anton on Unsplash)

The Austrian non-government organisation Zara receives complaints and assists victims of racism and discrimination in the country. Every year, they deal with cases which involve attacks on Muslims, black mothers and their children being harassed and more. In 2022, they received 1,479 reports of racist incidents, according to a recent Rassismus Report.

For the first time, the numbers have decreased slightly in Austria. In 2021, the organisation documented and handled 1,977 reports of racism. Most of the incidents occurred online (68 percent). Still, many happened in the public sphere, in places for goods & services, involving public authorities and institutions, in employment, in the police institution or within politics & media.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Why is support for Austria’s far-right FPÖ rising?

One case mentioned within the police happened when a police officer was called to check on an apartment party and allegedly asked only black people to show their identification, according to the report. 

Often, little comes of trying to defend oneself against such police assaults, Zara consultant Matthias Flug told Der Standard. Investigations are mostly dropped, he said. “One reason for this is that there is still no independent body outside the police structures that investigates these complaints,” he criticised.

Austria’s Interior Ministry only recently announced it would open a complaints body to look into police violence, the report added. 

Legal action was taken in two out of ten reports; otherwise, the Zara team reported posts to online platforms or intervened with the actors.

In most cases, victims and witnesses reported islamophobia, followed by complaints of racism. 

READ ALSO: What measures against foreigners is Austria’s far-right trying to take?

‘Omnipresent racism’

“It’s important to be aware of the pervasiveness of racism in our society,” said Zara counsellor Rakhi Schmuck. Affected people could be confronted with it at any time, he added.

“They could experience racism just as much when receiving medical treatment as when shopping at the supermarket. They will never have an effortless reality of life”, Schmuck said.

The report clarifies people’s rights when they suffer from racist encounters. For example, in Austria, racist insults are prohibited by law and, in contrast to simple insults, can be reported to the police. The person affected can authorise the initiation of criminal proceedings. Associations such as ZARA can offer support and legal assistance.

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CRIME

Are there ‘young gangs’ forming in Vienna?

If you read Austrian tabloid media, Vienna has a 'gang' problem, with several crimes committed by groups of young people in recent months. But is that true?

Published: 18 April 2024 13:17 CEST
Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.  

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations. 

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria. 

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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