Poland’s right-wing government on Wednesday scrapped a state council tasked with combating racism despite an increase in hate crime in the country, according to media reports.
“The council proved to be rather inefficient,” Rafał Bochenek, spokesperson for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party told reporters in Warsaw, AFP reported. He added that there were “more efficient” bodies that would carry on the work.
The council was set up by the previous government and the decision to scrap it was widely condemned by the opposition and Poland’s ombudsman.
“It’s shameful. The council is absolutely necessary amid the increasing number of racially motivated attacks and rising xenophobia,” Ombudsman Adam Bodnar told AFP.
Last year, Polish prosecutors launched 1,500 probes into cases of alleged discrimination and racially motivated hate crimes. In 2009, 60 such cases were investigated.
“The fears, spread by certain political parties about refugees are feeding into racist comments on the Internet, and this has not been firmly condemned,” Bodnar said.
PiS won last year’s general election on an anti-refugee platform. Its leader Jarosław Kaczyński had said refugees brought “cholera to the Greek islands, dysentery to Vienna, various types of parasites.”