The rise of xenophobia and rascism in Europe

They patrol as self-appointed vigilantes in riot gear against refugee camps. They help the police and the army in border management. From the Baltic to Bulgaria and everywhere in Eastern Europe such right-wing private militias and vigilantes have grown. Many of them came years ago out of its niche existence as gun nuts and homeland security fanatics and marched, for example, as a protective force against alleged “Gypsy crime”. Now they have discovered vigilante activity that they hope to receive increased social acceptance for: the so-called “migrant defense.”

The Czech political analyst and researcher of extremism Miroslav Mares of the Masaryk University calls the militias tracking refugees from the Middle East an “uncontrolled and dangerous phenomenon’.