Discrimination remains widespread in Germany

Created: 08/16/2022Updated: 08/16/2022 11:43 am

The new anti-discrimination officer Ferda Ataman.

© Jörg Carstensen/dpa

"The number of cases of discrimination reported to us is alarming," says the new anti-discrimination officer, looking at the figures for the past year.

Berlin - Discrimination is still widespread in Germany, according to the latest official data.

A total of 5,617 cases were reported to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency last year that were related to one of the grounds for discrimination specified in the Anti-Discrimination Act.

Most of these - 37 percent - were due to racial discrimination.

This emerges from the agency's annual report for 2021, which the new anti-discrimination officer Ferda Ataman presented in Berlin on Tuesday.

Compared to the previous year, when the anti-discrimination agency recorded 6383 cases, the reports fell by a good twelve percent.

However, this decline is “due to fewer inquiries in connection with the corona pandemic, especially about the obligation to wear masks,” it said.

According to the information, the number of requests for advice on all other forms of discrimination remained high.

“The number of cases of discrimination reported to us is alarming.

But it also shows that more and more people are not reconciled with discrimination and are looking for help," said the representative Ataman, who has only held the office since July.

She appealed to all people who experience exclusion due to different characteristics to take action - if necessary in court.

In addition to racist cases, the contact point, which is affiliated to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, mainly dealt with discrimination on the basis of disability and chronic illnesses (32 percent) in the past year.

Discrimination based on gender was therefore based on 20 percent of the inquiries.

Those affected complained about most experiences of discrimination when accessing private services (33 percent) and in working life (28 percent), it said.

CDU domestic politician accuses Ataman of discrimination

The Union took the presentation of the annual report of the federal anti-discrimination agency as an opportunity to reiterate its criticism of the agency's head, Ferda Ataman, who was appointed in July.

The annual report shows that there are still major challenges in overcoming unjustified disadvantages, such as age, origin, gender, disability or sexual identity, said the domestic political spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm, on Tuesday.

However, with the appointment of Ataman as federal commissioner, the traffic light coalition had "done a disservice" to the issue of anti-discrimination.

She ignores part of the spectrum of discrimination in Germany - "racism among migrants" and anti-Semitism as part of Islamist ideology.

Instead, she defames Germans without a migration background "as potatoes and racists".

Throm continued: "Mrs. Ataman would rather be a report case for the federal anti-discrimination agency she heads." The Union had already heavily criticized the appointment of the journalist Ataman in advance.

On the other hand, she received support from associations that work against discrimination against migrants and their descendants.

dpa