Anti-discrimination office: Cases increased by eleven percent

The Anti-Discrimination Office (ADB) Saxony advised more people last year. In 2024, the advice center processed 581 cases of discrimination, according to the ADB. Compared to the previous year, the number increased by eleven percent. There was also an increase in ongoing cases, which are supported over several months, from 105 to 121 cases compared to 2023.

"People who are affected by discrimination are increasingly becoming the focus of populist propaganda and agitation - in Saxony even more so since the state elections last year," said Jan Diebold, Head of Anti-Discrimination Counselling at the ADB, according to the statement. "The increasingly brutal climate is playing its part in the fact that we are receiving more and more drastic cases, where we can hardly provide quick solutions, so we then have to accompany them for a long time."

Diebold also warned of the increasing pressure that organizations offering support are under. The insolvency of the umbrella association of Saxon migrant organizations is "a particularly drastic example with barely measurable, negative consequences for the member organizations and those affected".

Racism is the most common form of discrimination

Almost half of the cases involved racist discrimination. Disability or chronic illness accounted for around a quarter. In third place were cases of gender-based discrimination (around 8 percent). The areas of life most frequently affected were work (around 26 percent), public authorities (around 15 percent) and education (around 13 percent).

"We have been seeing an increase in cases of discrimination in the areas of offices and authorities as well as education for several years now," said Katharina Scholz, project manager of the anti-discrimination advice service. There is a protection gap in Saxony in these areas, unlike in the area of employment, where there is no legal recourse under the Equal Treatment Act. Scholz is therefore calling for a state anti-discrimination law based on the Berlin model with the establishment of an ombudsman's office for discrimination, which an expert opinion from the Ministry of Justice sees as a way out.