Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-27-Speech-4-025"
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"en.20070927.3.4-025"2
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"Mr President, in welcoming this Commission communication, I regret that, despite this and other legislation, discrimination across the EU has not decreased but has increased dramatically.
I would like to respond to those from the far right who challenge this because, let me tell you, that this year alone, I have met around 500 people from the Sikh community from France, from Belgium, from Italy, from Germany, all citing shocking cases of unacceptable discrimination against them because of their appearance: because they wear a turban.
Since 2004, there have been a number of Sikh boys who have been expelled from schools in France for not removing their turban. There are similar cases in Belgium and Germany.
Whilst the French High Court ruled that Sikh men could wear their turban on their driving licence ID photo, the French Ministry, within 24 hours of this verdict, expressly forbade it.
At Brussels Airport, Sikh men are regularly asked to remove their turbans, which is considered a major insult.
Furthermore, I receive weekly calls from Italy about people unable to go about their daily business because they are Sikhs. So these cases are clearly a violation of everything that this report is asking for and what the Commission is propagating.
Therefore, I would like to ask the Commissioner what he and the Commission are doing to challenge these cases of discrimination. We cannot talk about unity and diversity and then ignore practices of governments of many Member States.
I would like to congratulate Ms Buitenweg, the rapporteur on this report, for bringing forward measures that I hope will give some redress to those who are being marginalised because of ignorance and because of a lack of awareness and respect for other people’s culture.
Finally, I sincerely hope that in this year of equal opportunity, and next year of intercultural dialogue, we have the will to ensure that our deeds reflect our words."@en1
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