The number of racist incidents reports in 2020 increased to 700 last year according to a report from the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR).
The data, which uses information from the iReport.ie racist incident reporting system, found there was an increase of 170 reports on 2019 figures.
Included in those reports were 159 criminal incidents, and record high numbers of racist assaults (51 reports) and incidents of hate speech (334 reports).
Despite the national lockdowns, the findings state reports of hate speech and graffiti increased in 2020, while other categories were largely consistent with previous years.
The report also found high levels of hate speech from extremist groups, noting a significant increase on 2019 levels.
#ARM2021 continues as we launched our https://t.co/4WPniTH1Eq
data report for 2020. There's still plenty happening this & the next week, incl our Hate Crime- focused event in p-ship with Lord Mayor @hazechu
this Fri.Registration opens soon!See whats on:https://t.co/RAbSor2wn4Advertisement— INAR - Irish Network Against Racism (@INARIreland) March 23, 2021
Rates of repeated harassment, serious threats, thefts, and workplace racism were slightly down in 2020, while there was a slight increase in the reporting of crimes to authorities.
The report found 11 per cent of all incidents resulted in physical injury, and psychological impacts and social isolation resulting from racist abuse and violence have more than doubled.
INAR board member and Traveller activist Oein De Bhairduin said the pandemic did little to reduce incidents of racism in Ireland.
"Contrary to what we might expect, the pandemic and associated lockdowns did not result in a quieter time for minorities in Ireland.
It’s been a bad year for everyone and racism and hate crime have made it an even worse one for all minorities.
"In fact, the situation worsened for minorities, both in terms of the absolute number of online and on-the-street hate incidents, and in terms of the disproportional impacts of Covid on almost all minority groups," Mr De Bhairduin said.
"What all minorities need in order to be able to live as equals is for our Government and institutions to bring their weight to tackle racism and discrimination, and the conditions which foster racist and discrimination.
"We have the promise of Hate Crime legislation this year, and that is welcome. We also need measures to tackle hate speech in the online environment, and we need to climb the steep slopes of our institutions if we are to tackle institutional racism and the systemic racism it enables," he said.
"It’s been a bad year for everyone and racism and hate crime have made it an even worse one for all minorities," he added.
