Race discrimination complaints increase
EOC says the rise may reflect greater public awareness
Complaints over racial discrimination and inquiries about race legislation have increased five-fold in the past four years, an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) spokeswoman said yesterday.
The commission received 203 calls last year from people with either questions or complaints about racial issues, up from 40 calls in 1999.
In the first two months of this year alone, there have been 25 calls.
The EOC spokeswoman said the figures reflected an increase in public awareness of the issue.
Kelley Loper, of advocacy group Hong Kong Against Racial Discrimination, said: 'I'm not sure if the statistics reflect the problem is increasing.More and more people are coming out with their stories. From my own experiences, it seems like the cases are increasing.'
Last week, Hong Kong legislators moved a step closer to passing an anti-discrimination law when they overwhelmingly voted in favour of a motion supporting such a bill.
At present, the EOC and the Race Relations Unit, which comes under the government's Home Affairs Bureau, can take complaints from the public, but they cannot take legal action.
Of the complaints filed with the Race Relations Unit, the most common involve the retail sector, where people are not served, verbally abused or forced to pay a higher price.
The second most common area for complaint is the education sector, where minority children are rejected for admission to schools and English teachers are rejected for employment if they are not Caucasian.
