Racism in Eastern Europe For Tourists?
Hello all and thank you for your interest in this question.
Next summer, myself and another friend were planning to do a 4 month Eastern Europe trip – Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Romania, Hungary & Bulgaria.
Ukraine was a possibility as well.
When reading various articles and columns on the amount of racism and discrimination in many of these Eastern European states, I can’t help but notice the many warnings to tourists of darker skin color.
I am looking to see if it is safe for darker-skin tourists to visit these countries since this would definitely help us in planning.
Many apologies if this offends anyone, but it would be ideal for us to have first-hand accounts from those who have traveled through here or those that live there.
Again, thank you very much for your help.
I never been to Slovakia, but I definitely know that it’s not like in Hostel – Hostel is just a Hollywood movie, a very bad one, in my personal opinion.
Assuming that you are serious person that doesn’t take everything for granted, or rely on Hollywood movies, I will say this:
- maybe there are cases of racism in some of mentioned countries, I can’t claim that there isn’t, especially if there are reports. But,
- as someone above said, not many black people are actually residents in these countries, so your skin color can easily indicate the fact that you are tourist, which can easily attract robbers and co.
- What I best know are ex-Yugoslavian countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro. Thousands of tourists visit these countries every year, especially Croatia and Montenegro during summer. I never heard for any case of racism towards tourists. Bosnia for example is full of foreigners who work for international organizations (civilians) and peacekeeper forces, many of them are black, and they don’t just visit, they actually live here. Again, never heard for any case for racism, but even if there was, it’s so rare that I just can’t remember of any.
On the contrary, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, Balkans countries are safer than the west Europe. Read it yourself:
http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/3190.cfm
Of course, nobody can say that you are 100% safe in any place in the world. But if you ask me, there is no serious reason to be worried.