Nearly half of the foreign students in Northern Cyprus have been subjected to racist persecution

In Northern Cyprus, 47.2% of foreign students have been subjected to racist persecution. According to a study by the Center for Political Studies (Polmer) at Rauf Denktaş University, racism is a "major problem" in the TRNC.

The study, titled "Racism," is the third part of a scientific work under the direction of sociologist Kudret Akay, which consists of four parts and examines the relations between the city and the university from a sociological perspective.

According to the survey, in which 305 foreign students participated from October to December 2023, excluding Turks, 47.2% of the students were subjected to racist persecution.

According to the survey, 23.7% of the participants were subjected to persecution or jokes because of their skin color, and 20.4% were subjected to verbal insults. At the same time, 16.8% of the respondents stated that they were subjected to discriminatory comments, and 11.8% were subjected to physical violence.

It is also noted that the majority of victims of persecution - 79.9% - stated that they did not report the persecution they faced to the police. At the same time, 34.5% of those who complained stated that they did not achieve any results, and the number of cases where the police initiated criminal proceedings is 6.9%. Another 10.3% of respondents stated that their complaints have not been considered yet.

Among those victims of racism who did not report to the police, 22.6% stated that they did not know how to do it, 20.9% initially believed that their complaint would not be taken seriously. 10.9% stated that they did not complain because they thought they would not be believed, and 4.3% did not report to the police because they were ashamed.

It is also noted that 30.8% of respondents stated that racism is a very big problem in Northern Cyprus, and only 4.6% consider it an insignificant problem.

Only 15% of respondents found the residents of Northern Cyprus to be very hospitable, while 19.7% stated that they do not consider the local residents to be friendly at all.

The study was conducted based on the UN "Review of Racism" 2020 and its adaptation to the country's conditions using the same question modeling.