Spain’s Ministry of the Interior revealed that hate crimes increased by 21.3% in 2023 compared to 2022. The Ministry’s data showed that security forces investigated 2,268 hate crimes.
According to the data, 4 out of every 10 hate crimes involved racist and xenophobic speech (856 cases), followed by crimes related to gender (522 cases) and crimes stemming from ideological reasons (352 cases).
Spaniards constituted 62.1% of those who experienced hate crimes, while Moroccans and Colombians were the most frequently targeted among foreigners.
Additionally, a report by the Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, affiliated with the Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, highlighted that unaccompanied minor migrants are the most targeted group on social media platforms.
The report indicated that 33.7% of hate crimes on social media targeted irregular migrants from North Africa, and 26.2% included anti-Islamic content. In 2023, a total of 2,655 cases of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Roma, or Islamophobia were documented on social media.
