<p>LISBON, Portugal — A senior European human rights official is sounding the alarm about a rise in racism and discrimination in Portugal.</p>
<p>The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published a report Wednesday into “the increasing level of racism and the persistence of related discrimination” in the southern European country.</p>
<p>Mijatović singled out for special concern a rise in the number of racially motivated hate crimes and hate speech, and discrimination against Roma and those of African descent. She recommended that authorities take measures “urgently.”</p>
<p>Mijatović also said she was “deeply concerned at reports of racially motivated police misconduct and allegations of infiltration of some segments of the police by far-right extremist movements.”</p>
<p>Those reports have come amid the emergence and rise of a two-year-old anti-immigrant populist party called Chega, which has moved into the political mainstream by gaining a seat in parliament and showing strongly in a recent presidential race.</p>
<p>One source of the current problems are “biased assumptions and stereotypes” that are part of the country’s colonial legacy, the Council of Europe report said, urging a review of how the history of the one-time Portuguese empire and its slave trade is taught in schools.</p>
<p>The Portuguese government acknowledged last year that racism had become a problem. It set up a committee last November to assess ways of addressing it, including the upcoming publication of a national plan to combat racism and discrimination for the period 2021-2025.</p>
<p>Authorities have also promised to launch later this year a public awareness campaign against racism and discrimination, as well as review police recruitment policies.</p>
