By NICK WILSON
WASHINGTON (CN) - As illegal immigration has increased in Europe, so have the "ineffective and counterproductive" racial profiling practices of European police, said experts at a Monday meeting of the Helsinki Commission. "Ethnic profiling is targeting people because of who they are instead of what they have done," Rachel Neild said.
Neild from the Open Society Institute, which is funded by George Soros, called profiling humiliating, hurtful and ineffective, saying at a Helsinki Commission briefing on Capitol Hill that the practice is accusatory in nature and erodes trust in police.
Muslims, blacks and gypsies are three to 14 times more likely to be stopped by police than a white person, depending on the region, Neild said. And in Moscow, the chances go up to 21 times as likely.
These ratios are higher than in the United States or United Kingdom, where there are strong traditions of immigration. In the U.S. and UK, even the worst areas for racial profiling are substantially lower the European numbers, the witnesses said. In areas where racial profiling is most prevalent in the U.S. and UK, police stop minorities eight times more than whites.
The increases come amid bursts in illegal immigration, which have ignited more serious tensions in countries like Spain and Italy that have historically been sources of emigration. These once homogenous societies are just feeling the effects of attracting immigrants.
In just the last decade, roughly five million people have immigrated into Spain, which now holds 46 million.
No one on the three-person panel promoted racial profiling, but proponents say the practice simply acknowledges the visible trends among certain groups of people.
France, which drew global attention during racial riots in 2005, has set numeric targets for capturing illegal immigrants. Neil said the quotas encourage racial profiling.
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http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/22/25782.htmLabels: Crime, Europe, Gypsy, racial profiling
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