Spain

47.329.981
inhabitants

Official data

3.958

Total hate crimes

Motivations with the highest number of hate crimes

Racism and xenophobia
1.976 (49,92%)
Crimes against sexual orientation
929 (23,47%)
Persons with disabilities
538 (13,59%)

Chronology of hate crimes reported by the OSCE

2015 (1.003) 0%
2016 (1.005) 0%
2017 (962) 0%
2018 (988) 0%
Total 3.958

Civil Society Data

1.362

Total hate crimes

Motivations with the highest number of hate crimes

Political intolerance
464 (34,07%)
Sexual orientation
303 (22,25%)
Crimes against other religions
229 (19,82%)
1.362
crimes

34,07% crimes of
political intolerance

22,25% crimes against
sexual orientation
Self sourced
0
Víctimas mortales identificadas
Official data
0
Víctimas en incidentes con resultados de muerte y heridos
Civil society data
0
Víctimas mortales

Determining the exact motivation for such killings involves a psychological and legal analysis of each case. Collecting data from journalistic and other open sources multiplies the motivations to be taken into account. The present classification is based on the motivations mentioned in the sources consulted.

6 victims due to racist attacks

1 victim due to Anti-Romanyism attacks
4 victims due to aporophobia attacks
2 victims due to political intolerance
12 victims due to attacks against sexual orientation
7 victims due to attacks for multiple motives
19 men
2 women
11 transgender/transexual
0
Suicidios

Graph 28: Map of Spain showing identified hate crime deaths by motive, 2015-June 2020

Terrorist attacks

16 mortal victims
Jihadist-inspired attacks

Figure 29: Map of Spain of deaths due to terrorism by motivation, 2015-June 2020

Year Total
2015 0
2016 0
2017 16
2018 0
2019 0
2020 0
TOTAL 16

Graph 30: Map of Spain showing total deaths: identified victims and victims of terrorist attacks

Identified victims of hate-related incidents with own source (not terrorism)
32 deaths

Victims killed by terrorist attacks
16 deaths

Official data

OSCE. Spain’s official data place the country in third place in terms of the total number of hate crimes included in the study, with 3,958 incidents. The motivation of racism and xenophobia stands out by a wide margin, with 1,976 crimes, accounting for 49.92% of the total, i.e. practically half of the total amount of hate crime incidents.
Racism and xenophobia are followed by homophobic crimes with a total of 929 (23.47%).

In contrast to other countries analysed, in Spain the category of attacks against persons with disabilities totalled 538 crimes (13.59%), although there was a sharp decrease from 226 and 264 cases in 2015 and 2016, to 23 and 25 in 2017 and 2018. In the absence of a qualitative study, we cannot interpret this data. What is certain is that in Spain the disability associative movement is thriving and this favours the visibility and reporting of incidents of prejudice, discrimination and hatred. Moreover, it helps the authorities to perceive this type of motivation, but it does not help us to understand the differences between the two biennia.

Attacks against members of other religions (5.53%) is another category with the highest number of incidents.

The other official categories show zero (Islamophobia or anti-Roma) or very low (anti-Christian) data.

Chronology of crimes reported by OSCE

2015 (1.003) 0%
2016 (1.005) 0%
2017 (962) 0%
2018 (988) 0%
Total 3.958

Figure 31: Evolution of official data on hate crime incidences in Spain, 2015-2018

  • Anti-Christianism
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Members of other religions
  • Racism
  • Crimes against sexual orientation
  • Persons with disabilities
  • Sexual crimes
  • Unknown causes

Graph 32: Map of Spain with the total number of hate-related incidents and motives with the highest percentages

Graph 33: Total crimes in Spain according to OSCE data by motive, 2015-June 2020

City society data

Organisations recognised by the OSCE. A study of data from OSCE-recognised civil society organisations in Spain yields a figure of 1,362 cases.

Rest of organisations. At the top of the hate crimes listed in the study are those related to political intolerance, 464 (34.07%), with an upward trend.
It should not be forgotten that Spain has been shaken by decades of ideologically motivated violence and terrorism (see Table 1).

This is followed by crimes of a homophobic nature, with 291 cases (21.81%) and those against Christian symbols with 161 cases (12.07%).

At a lower level but with high figures, there are incidents motivated by Islamophobia, 114 (8.37%) and those that humiliated victims of terrorism, 109 (8%).

Crimes of intolerance targeting representatives of the rule of law – State Security Forces and Corps or judges -, 66 cases (4.85%), together with racist and xenophobic crimes, 62 (4.55%), are the last ones to exceed 3% of the total.

Below 3% are crimes motivated by attacks against members of other religions, with 38 cases (2.79%), and anti-Semitic crimes with 30 (2.25%). We found one type of incident motivated by discrimination with respect to COVID19 , with at least 6 incidents (0.45%).

The overall trend of hate incidents in Spain is on the rise.

The most singular motivation for prejudice, intolerance and hatred is possibly Hispanophobia. Some associations detect it in Catalonia but also in the Basque Country and have defined it as something that – beyond political confrontation – is a subculture of rejection and aversion to Spain, to Spanish citizenship or to anything that may refer to Spanish culture and language and is projected politically, socially or in the media, according to the reports of the Civic Observatory of Political Violence created by Impulso Ciudadano and Movimiento contra la Intolerancia.

Another singular issue in ethno-nationalist post-terrorism is the legitimisation of murder and violence. According to the Collective of Victims of Terrorism, there were 109 cases of tributes to terrorists between 2015 and 2020. At these events, children are present and actively participate in the acts, as well as the aurreskus (a Basque dance performed as a reverence) of honour and the flags and torches (if it is at night).

In April 2021 the National Police arrested ten individuals in Pamplona who were part of a commando linked to Amnistía Ta Askatasuna (ATA).

Decades of Ideologically Motivated Violence

Spain has known discourses of intolerance and processes of violent radicalisation, with the creation of ultra-right, ultra-left and ethno-nationalist terrorist organisations. Among the ethno-nationalist terrorist organisations, the terrorist organisation ETA achieved a political movement of support, an important effect of fear and social control, and the flight of tens of thousands of citizens from their places of residence.
Jihadist-inspired hatred and terrorism corresponds to international or global terrorism currents.

The decades of omnipresence of intolerant and populist identity-based discourses in public opinion and the political and institutional normalisation of such degrading discourses, have erased many incidents and crimes associated with ideological intolerance from the radar of authorities and scholars, partly because of the naturalisation of the bias of prejudice of the harassed and the continued existence of political representatives who normalised this vision, handed out praise and used the typical and paradoxical populist resource of victimhood.

As in other countries in the study and on other grounds of prejudice and ideological intolerance, when political leaders push a discourse of intolerance and prejudice, it is not innocuous.

The level of non-verbal violence has been so intense in the Basque Country and Navarre for decades, that it was accounted for separately from other motivations of intolerance, prejudice and hatred. In the Basque Country, persecutory violence was the name given to those acts of persecution that did not culminate in a terrorist attack, but which prepared it or were related to the overarching strategy of exclusion.

Post-terrorism will make it possible to take a fresh look at the incidents of prejudice and hatred associated with political intolerance in the Basque Country and Navarre, as well as in Catalonia. Let us not forget what is at stake, it is the denial of the universality of human rights and the equal treatment of all people, because of who they are, because of their characteristics, whatever they may be.

In Catalonia, especially since the end of 2017, incidents of intolerance and political violence have increased. Impulso Ciudadano’s reports provide a detailed account, pointing out that the incidents are mostly directed against non-secessionists, but also secessionists have been harassed and assaulted, sometimes by other more extremist secessionists or by extremists of the opposite sign.

The Raxen Report

Spain has been collecting data on hate crime cases since 1995, led by the Movement Against Intolerance, in the so-called RAXEN report. The fact that they have been collecting and processing cases for 25 years is an extremely useful resource when it comes to discerning what is on and off the radar of the institutions, the chiffre noir.

For the period between 2015 and 2020, the report counts some 3,500 incidents of varying severity, according to their own criteria. However, it should not be forgotten that only a small proportion of incidents are reported – the organisation points to between 10 and 15% of total incidents -, so there could be between 4,000 and 6,500 hate incidents per year in Spain. This would mean an estimated 20,000 and 32,500 cases in the period covered by the study.

Xenophobia is the main manifestation of intolerance, in addition to incidents of anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism, religious intolerance and homophobia. Extremist positions encourage ideological conflicts and religious intolerance, which, in the case of anti-Semitism, clearly make their way into institutions. Moreover, on the streets there are numerous clashes between violent ultra-leftists who call themselves “antifas” and neo-fascists, as well as, on occasions, between football ultras from these or other currents. One of the breeding grounds for extremist radicalisation is precisely football.

According to the Movement Against Intolerance, social networks have taken centre stage as hosts to a large number of these hate incidents, especially those motivated by xenophobia, ideological hatred, and what it has come to call “Hispanophobia”, anti-Spanish sentiment exacerbated for reasons of identity.
Expressions of racist and xenophobic violence are recurrent throughout the period, especially in areas where there is a concentration of migrant populations.
The press, in turn, periodically echoes fatal assaults against the migrant population. In a case that shocked Logroño, six young people of Spanish and Colombian nationality, aged between 14 and 25, were arrested for the violent death of a 34-year-old man of Moroccan origin, a resident of Oion (Álava) known for cycling to Logroño, some 5 kilometres away, every day to work as a fast-food delivery boy.

The Raxen report counts some 3,500 incidents between 2015 and 2020 according to its own criteria

Another dark side of COVID

The situation generated by COVID has activated fear and with it, new forms of prejudice and intolerance, sometimes alongside other motivations, such as xenophobia or gerontophobia.

Many old people’s homes were major COVID hotspots during the first months of the pandemic, with thousands of deaths. One case of intolerance against the most vulnerable elder population was seen in the stoning of a bus carrying elderly people to be better cared for from COVID, because the neighbours of the vicinity did not want them to enter their locality.

In a country where more than a hundred doctors, nurses and health workers have died of COVID, in heroic work, in addition to the applause of the majority, we have been able to trace threats, neighbourhood harassment and even complaints to the police to force the expulsion of health workers from their community of neighbours.

In Barcelona, in April 2020, a gynaecologist who worked at a hospital in the city found a message written on the side of her car, which was parked in a communal garage in the apartment complex where she lived. The graffiti insulted her with the expression “Rata Contagiosa” (Contagious Rat).

Another case was that of a worker at the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, who was reported to the police by her neighbours for fear of contagion, as according to some of them she moved around the community and put them at risk. The victim lived on the fourth floor and went upstairs every day to help her mother, something that some neighbours did not see fit. When she came downstairs on one of the occasions she found the door of her home smashed in.

Incidents against Asians became active, and we have seen incidents of anonymous leaflets accusing the Chinese of “being responsible for the deaths” from the coronavirus. The anonymous leaflets pointed directly at the Chinese shops that had been established for years in the municipality of Moaña (Galicia).

Table 15: Annual evolution of hate incidents in Spain by type of motivation, 2015-June 2020

* Data for the first 6 months of 2020

SPAINTOTALTotal (%)201520162017201820192020*
Political intolerance46434,07%--2844433844
Crimes against sexual orientation30322,25%111014313423
Anti-Christianism and other religions19914,92%38295356212
Islamofobia1148,37%2434327161
Victims of terrorism1098%--34336216
Attacks against the rule of law705,14%--111157--
Racism and xenophobia606,04%15510291--
Anti-Semitism302,20%238692
Covid-19 discrimination60,44%000006
Persons with disabilities0,07%--1--------
TOTAL1.362--858331733151729

Figure 34: Annual incidents in Spain by type of motivation. Data Civil Society

 TOTAL 1.362201520162017201820192020
Political intolerance
464 (34,07%)284443844
Crimes against sexual orientation
303 (22,25%)111014313423
Anti-Christianism and other religions
199 (14,92%)38295356212
Islamophobia
114
(8,55%)
2434327161
Victims of terrorism
109 (8%)34336216
Attacks against the rule of law*
70 (7,05%)111157
Racism and xenophobia
62 (4,55%)105221771
Anti-Semitism
12 (1,21%)238692
Covid-19 discrimination
5 (0,51%)6
Persons with disabilities
1 (0,07%)1

Figure 34: Annual incidents in Spain by type of motivation. Data Civil Society

 TOTAL 1.362201520162017201820192020
Political intolerance
464 (34,07%)284443844
Crimes against sexual orientation
303 (22,25%)111014313423
Anti-Christianism and other religions
199 (14,92%)38295356212
Islamophobia
114
(8,55%)
2434327161
Victims of terrorism
109 (8%)34336216
Attacks against the rule of law*
70 (7,05%)111157
Racism and xenophobia
62 (4,55%)105221771
Anti-Semitism
12 (1,21%)238692
Covid-19 discrimination
5 (0,51%)6
Persons with disabilities
1 (0,07%)1

* Includes crimes of intimidation of the judicial system.

Cases

Aporophobia
Aporophobia

Stefan Pruteanu
11-01-2019
Gran Canaria

STEFAN PRUTEANU, 61 YEARS OLD. A Romanian homeless man, who had both legs amputated, was strangled to death and then his body was burnt by a Spaniard of Turkish origin in Playa del Inglés, in the south of Gran Canaria. The alleged murderer’s partner, British woman Roberta S., was also charged with a cover-up for her part in the preparation of the body and the subsequent burning. Stefan was 61 years old at the time of his death and, although he was well liked in the area where he lived, he had no descendants or known relatives.

Laureano Almeida, Imad Allouss, Juan Ramón Barberán and Jean Pierre Herbillon
Spring 2020
Barcelona

DURING THE LOCKDOWN OF THE SPRING OF 2020, A SERIAL KILLER THREATENED THE HOMELESS POPULATION OF BARCELONA. At least four people were killed in a clear example of aporophobia. They were Laureano Almeida Damura; he was 60 years old and born in Orense; Imad Allouss was 22 and from Morocco; Juan Ramón Barberán Giner was 76 and born in Teruel; and Jean Pierre Herbillon was 32 and born in France.
All of them were killed in the Eixample district of Barcelona by Thiago Fernandes Lages, born on 25 January 1985 in Brazil and living in a caravan in Valldoreix.

Homophobia
Homophobia

Francisco Javier, U.P., ALIAS “LA ELY”
18-02-2018
Valladolid

La Ely, well known in the city, was one of the first people to fight for gay rights in Valladolid. A 15-year-old teenager brutally beat her up in a shopping centre. He left her in a coma and then stole her mobile phone. The minor turned himself in at the police station. ‘La Ely’ died a month later as a result of her injuries.

Political intolerance
Political intolerance

Víctor Laínez
08-12-2017
Zaragoza

MURDERED FOR WEARING SPANISH FLAG BRACES. Víctor Laínez was beaten to death for wearing braces with the Spanish flag on them. The murderer, a violent left-wing extremist, Rodrigo Lanza, was sentenced to 20 years for beating Laínez to death in the early hours of 8 December 2017, after calling him a Nazi and a fanatic in a bar in Zaragoza. The aggravating factor of hate was considered and his criminal record was taken into account. In 2008, he was sentenced to five years in prison for throwing a stone at the head of a city guard during an illegal occupation of a house, for which he was left quadriplegic.

Racism
Racism

Younes Bilal
12-06-2021
Puerto de Mazarrón, Murcia

A Young Moroccan man, Younes Bilal, 37, was shot three times at point-blank range in the town of Puerto de Mazarrón, Murcia. Bilal tried to defend a waitress and her friends from the racist insults of her assailant in a local café. After that, Carlos Patricio B. M., a 52-year-old ex-military officer, shot him while he was uttering insults such as “death to Moroccans”.

* Case not counted because it occurred outside the period of analysis.

Lyssa Da Silva
20-07-2015
Alicante

CONCURRENCE OF MOTIVATIONS THAT GENERATE VULNERABILITY (FOREIGNER, ECONOMICALLY VULNERABLE, TRANSSEXUAL, PROSTITUTE). Lyssa Da Silva, a 33-year-old Brazilian transsexual was brutally beaten, causing a severe concussion and an abdominal stroke, which eventually ended her life. According to the police, Lyssa was a prostitute and the two accused were allegedly her clients. The criminal’s roommate, with whom she had had sexual relations, arrived at the house shortly afterwards and helped him to dispose of the body. They left her lying in the lift of the building and cleaned up the blood stains. Afterwards, they went to sleep. They were arrested at the house.

Zona gris
Naiara Valentina Abi Briones
07-2017
Sabiñánigo, Huesca

The 8-year-old girl, of Argentinian origin, died in Huesca in July 2017 at the hands of a relative, who beat her for 7 hours and gave her electric shocks for not doing her homework. The different reports, autopsy and reports of the Guardia Civil make up one of the cruelest summary proceedings in Spain in living memory. The murderer, brother of the girl’s stepfather, used to share videos against foreigners, homosexuals and discriminatory towards women. During the hours in which he kept her handcuffed, he tried to prevent the girl’s screams from being heard. He insulted her, among other things, with the words “fucking spic”.

Samuel Luiz
03-07-2021
A Coruña

Homicide by a gang assault in La Coruña (Galicia) in the early hours of 3 July 2021. This 24-year-old Spanish homosexual of Brazilian origin was accosted by a couple in the vicinity of a discotheque while he was making a video call.
Samuel was questioned by his attacker who, after an initial aggression, later returned with a group of at least 12 people who brutally beat him up. He died hours later of his injuries in hospital.
According to some witnesses, the crime was homophobically motivated, although others claim that the defendants acted out of personal intolerance and blind violence without specific motivation, as they do not appear to have known his sexual orientation.
The crime took place during the course of the LGTBi Pride week, receiving enormous visibility in the public opinion, and being perceived in the first moments as homophobically motivated with messages from leaders of LGTB+ associations, and calls for demonstrations in different cities in Spain, in protest against the murder of Samuel and other recent homophobically motivated attacks in Spanish territory.
As in other highly sensitive cases in the public opinion, terrible and regrettable mournful events trigger general solidarity, but almost immediately they also lead to political polarisation and instrumentalisation. This is a sincerely worrying trend. The young man’s relatives were cruelly treated on social media. Forgetting the real human being, his real emotional environment, generates a double victimisation of those who have suffered the real loss.

*Case not counted because it occurred outside the period of analysis.

Isam Haddour
06-04-2021
Oion, Álava

As for the case of Isam, a 34 years old of Maghrebi origin, a resident of Oion (Alava), known for travelling every day by bicycle to Logroño, about five kilometres away, to work as a fast food delivery man.
On 6 April 2021 at 23h15 he stopped next to the Ebro park and was approached by six young men. They asked him for a cigarette, he refused and they beat him brutally. They returned two minutes later to beat him further and rob him of everything he had: his mobile phone, his bicycle, the little money he was carrying and a jacket he had bought three days earlier. Shortly afterwards, the attackers were identified in the centre of Logroño for breaking curfew. One of the attackers, who had kept his jacket, was arrested while trying to steal from a building site and spent the night at the police station.
A few hours later, a neighbour found Isam’s body still alive. He was brain dead as a result of the beatings. In the beating “everyone was involved”, by “hitting or encouraging them to do so”. The two minors in the gang lived in a supervised flat. The six young men, of Spanish and Colombian nationality, were aged between 14 and 25. In the course of the police investigation, the cameras were able to identify them twenty minutes after the aggression, laughing and recalling it.

*Case not counted because it occurred outside the period of analysis.