Rate-hate incidents in Northern Ireland are at a new all time high.
New statistics reveal there were 1,411 such incidents recorded in the 12 months from July 1 2023 to June 30 2024 - 144 higher than for previous 12 months.
The Nisra figures, compiled from PSNI statistics, indicate that more faith/religion and transgender identity hate incidents were also recorded over the same period when compared with the previous 12 months.
Crimes with a faith/religion hate motive saw the largest increase, while sectarian crimes saw the largest decrease.
The figures reveal there were 1411 racist incidents and 891 racist crimes recorded by the police in the 12 months to the end of June 2024 - the highest figure for race hate incidents since police records began in April 2004.
Faith/religion incidents rose from 36 to 94 and crimes increased from 25 to 60, while transgender identity incidents increased from 61 to 73 and the number of transgender identity crimes rose from 40 to 41.
Meanwhile, there was a decrease of 254 sectarian incidents, while the number of crimes fell by 317, described as the largest fall in sectarian crimes over a 12-month period since autumn 2016.
Sexual orientation incidents and crimes fell from 417 to 378 and from 277 to 230 respectively, and disability incidents decreased from 122 to 89 and crimes fell from 83 to 48.
The latest figures, which were published on Thursday, were recorded before the recent spate of race-related incidents across parts of the north.
Unrest in Belfast and attacks on some businesses owned by people from minority ethnic backgrounds came at a time of tension across the UK following misinformation on social media after the murder of three young children in Southport.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director, said the new figures show that “even before the recent orchestrated campaign of racist violence in parts of Northern Ireland, the number of race hate incidents reported to the police was at an all-time high”.
“The fact that racist crimes represent almost one-in-a-hundred of all recorded crimes in Northern Ireland should be a wake-up call to the scale of the problem now facing us,” he said.
“For too long, those behind these attacks have felt able to act with impunity, emboldened to carry out further attacks. This has been the depressing backdrop to the recent and ongoing spike in racially-motivated attacks which have left minoritised communities living in fear.
“Tackling racism and race hate crime in Northern Ireland requires not just a consistent response from the police but clear political leadership and effective strategies from the government.”
