By Staff Reporter

The European Union and its member states have been urged to take proactive measures against the structural racism people of African descent face across the continent.

It is believed that about 15 million people of African descent who presently live in Europe face ongoing discrimination and are subjected to obnoxious negative stereotyping.

Evidence obtained by the EU suggests that Afro-European children receive lower grades at school than their white colleagues, and their rate of early school leaving is markedly higher.

A recent resolution in the European Parliament, which was overwhelmingly adopted (535 in favour to 80 votes against, and 44 abstentions), called on EU and national authorities to develop anti-racism policies and programmes aimed at ending discrimination wherever it exists against Africans, especially in the fields of education, housing, health, criminal justice, political participation and migration.

MEPs warned that Afrophobic attacks are increasing, and urged the European Commission and EU member states to accept “the racist, discriminatory and xenophobic suffering of Afro-Europeans, and offer proper protection against these inequalities to ensure that hate crimes are suitably investigated, prosecuted and sanctioned”.

They added that people of African descent should be properly considered in current funding programmes and in the next multiannual financial framework (2021-2027) as a way of addressing ongoing injustice against them.

The mistreatment of people of African descent in police custody was also condemned by MEPs, who also made references to several “violent incidents and deaths that have occurred while in custody”.

They also noted the frequent use of racial and ethnic profiling in criminal law enforcement, counter-terrorism measures and immigration control, and urge member states to end this practice.

The MEPs’ resolution urged EU institutions and member states to deal with and rectify historic injustices and crimes against humanity, committed in the name of European colonialism. They stressed that extraordinary crimes still have ongoing negative consequences for people of African descent.

European parliamentarians advised the EU and member states to offer reparations, including apologising publicly and returning stolen artefacts to the African countries that own them.

The resolution also called “on EU countries to declassify their colonial archives, as well as to present a comprehensive perspective on colonialism and slavery in the educational curricula”.