Switzerland saw a sharp increase in racist and xenophobic incidents in 2024, with the biggest hike seen in attacks on Muslims and Arabs, official statistics showed on Sunday.
There were 1,211 reported incidents last year of hate speech, physical attacks, threats and other discriminatory behaviour focused on aspects such as race and religious affiliation, marking a nearly 40-percent increase from a year earlier, according to Switzerland’s Federal Commission against Racism (EKR).
Such incidents have been on the rise for a number of years in the wealthy Alpine country, which counts nearly nine million inhabitants, around 40 percent of whom have a migration background.
But last year’s jump was “particularly significant”, EKR said in a joint statement with Swiss NGO Humanrights.
They highlighted a number of factors driving the increase, including growing geopolitical tensions and a greater polarisation in the public discourse, as well as a growing willingness to report cases.
The most frequently reported incidents involved xenophobic and anti-Black discrimination, which together accounted for 65 percent of all cases.
The type of discrimination that increased the most from 2023 was targeted at Muslims and Arabs, with over 350 such cases in total, the report showed.
Nearly 80 cases of anti-Asian attacks were also reported and 66 cases of anti-Semitism, it said.
Most of the incidents involved verbal attacks but around 100 cases of racially motivated physical violence were also reported.
Incidents categorised as hate speech showed the biggest increase last year, with 149 such reports.
In addition, there were over 400 reported cases of denigrating comments, nearly 300 cases of insults and over 100 cases of threats.
The report showed that almost a fifth of all registered cases took place in education settings, mainly in primary and secondary school.
