The authors of the reportExternal link published on Monday say the reasons for the decrease are very diverse and the figures cannot be used to make general statements about racial discrimination in the country.
As in previous years, many reported cases occurred at the workplace and in schools, childcare or further education, according to the Federal Commission against Racism and the group humanrights.ch.
Verbal abuse was the main form of racial discrimination while xenophobia was the most frequently reported motive, followed by hostility against coloured people, the authors of the annual report say.
They caution that the data, compiled by 24 counselling centres across Switzerland, is unlikely to show the full extent of discrimination in Switzerland.
But the report wants to highlight the range of counselling offered by the centres, according to a press release.
Besides the 278 investigated cases, the centres also registered 108 cases without sufficient evidence, 27 cases where no racial discrimination could be proven as well as 59 cases where the victims reported cases but without an entitlement to further investigation.
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Record number of reported discrimination incidents in Switzerland
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The number of reported cases of discrimination based on ethnicity, colour and religion has increased by half in 2017 compared to the year before.
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