AMNESTY International has called on police and Stormont leaders to do more to tackle racist hate crime.
The plea follows a spike in racially motivated attacks, with 276 more suspected crimes reported last year compared with 2020.
Addressing a Unite Against Hate campaign launch at the Skainos Centre in east Belfast yesterday, Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Programme Director, warned that race related offences go unpunished.
"Sadly that’s why I fear that Northern Ireland is currently a safe place for racists," he said.
"One of the things we are sadly world famous for is sectarianism and the walls that divide us. Yet, despite that and the fact that people from ethnic minorities make up less than 2 per cent of our population, racist-motivated hate crimes now outstrip those motivated by sectarianism," Mr Corrigan said.
An arson attack on the Belfast Multi-Cultural Association last year was among a litany of racially motiviated incidents. No-one has been prosecuted.
Mr Corrigan said the burning of the centre was the culmination of an 18-month campaign of intimidation.
"Will anyone be held accountable for this attack? More than a year on, the odds aren’t good."
He added: "One of the only positives one can take from that horrific attack was the overwhelmingly positive community response -- shock and horror, but most of all one of love and solidarity.
"But we need and have a right to expect more from our police and our political leaders. Ultimately, the test of their commitment will be who feels safest here."
