; Whereas annual reports of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (EUFRA) and both the 2009 and 2018 European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU–MIDIS I and II), the first European Union-wide surveys of ethnic minority and immigrant groups' experiences of discrimination and victimization in everyday life in the 27 member states of the European Union, have found that persons of African descent experience high incidents of discriminatory treatment, racist crime, and victimization, and lacked an awareness of their rights, often underreporting cases of hate crimes and other forms of discrimination to law enforcement and human rights agencies, and that the situation has not improved over the last 10 years; Whereas the 2013 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Annual Hate Crimes report included findings that there were more than 16 deaths and violent assaults against people of African origin, and that persons of African descent are often targets of racist and antimigrant violence, especially in eastern Europe, yet in many countries legal assistance and financial support for victims while recovering from violent attacks does not exist; Whereas the OSCE’s most recent 2016 hate crimes report found more than 1,400 racist and xenophobic incidents, including a number targeting Black Europeans; Whereas prejudice and discrimination towards Black Europeans has also been linked to changes in immigration and asylum laws as a result of antiterrorism initiatives and the growth and mainstreaming of nationalist and anti-immigrant political parties and groups, including neo-Nazis and skinheads