Race Organizer Grilled by Equality Commissioner over Racial Profiling
A race organizer on the island of Saaremaa caught in a controversy over third-country nationals has been asked by a national official why he prevented a number of African runners from running in his event on the island last month.
Both Tõnu Vaher and co-organizer Helen Jürjo received a letter from commissioner for gender equality and equal treatment Mari-Liis Sepper, asking for explanations as to why they reversed their stance on allowing six Africans to compete and on what grounds they found the case was a possible illegal immigration attempt.
As originally reported by Meie Maa, Vaher originally filed invitations for six Africans looking for a visa to run in a Saaremaa marathon held over three stages from October 14-16. The visa applications were approved in Tallinn but Vaher had second thoughts and later falsely told the Africans their applications had been denied.
According to Sepper, the difficulties faced by Africans legitimately looking to compete at events in the EU constitute discrimination.
"I find that that forgoing an invitation on the above grounds is based on racist prejudices," she wrote, apparently referring to the general trend among European organizers.
Organizer Tõnu Vaher said in Meie Maa that he was "shocked" at the perception that he was motivated by racism as opposed to racial profiling. He maintains he was only acting on the basis of stories of Africans using such races as pretexts to gain entry to the EU, and presumably then remain there illegally.
Vaher, who formally responded to Sepper on November 1, told Meie Maa that his only motive was to avoid possible problems that other experienced organizers had counselled him against letting the Africans run.
An organizer of the Tallinn Marathon said in an interview with ERR News in September that the prize money in a regional race such as the one on Saaremaa would not be enough to entice true professionals to compete.
The same organizer, Mati Lilliallik, was quoted in Meie Maa calling the issue endemic to the continent. "It is the same topic as the fact that millions of spam e-mails are sent out by Africans."
Kristopher Rikken