As the Asian diaspora living in Europe, one of the main forms of racial discrimination we face is street harassment. Whether it’s someone in a car who dares to yell “sambal bij” (“with sambal sauce”, in Dutch), someone on a bike using “nihao” as a slur, or someone who stops us on the street to say”ching chang chong”, its psychological impacts are real. But did you know that in several European countries, such harassment is criminalized, and aggressors may be fined up to €750 or a year in prison?

We, Asian Voices Europe, have first-hand experience of racist street harassment. This June, five of us met up in The Hague for our first-ever cross-country meetup, and experienced two racist incidents over that weekend. With our experience, conversations with the police officer, and additional research, we’re here to guide you on how to report and deal with racist street harassment.

Street harassment may be illegal in your country

To be clear, these laws weren’t created with anti-Asian racism in mind. In most cases, they targeted sexism, but we know discrimination tends to be intersectional. In Belgium and Spain, the laws on street harassment are part of a larger anti-sexism law. In France, the law was created amidst the country’s #BalanceTonPorc movement, as #MeToo united women around the world.

The five European countries which have criminalized street harassment, the Netherlands (since 2024), Spain (2022), France (2018), Portugal (2016), and Belgium (2014) are also signatories to the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, which entered into force in 2014. This shows the impact of international agreements on national laws, as well as the solidarity across borders—Similar laws on banning street harassment have been or are being debated in other EU Member States.

I was still harassed on the street, what can I do?

If you experience street harassment, here’s what you can do:

Stay Safe First: You decide whether it’s safe for you to confront the attack, or move to a safer spot first. If you’re in a busy spot with people around, call out the behavior firmly and demand an apology.
Gather Evidence: When it’s safe, whip out your phone. Snap pics or video of the person—clothes, car plates, anything to ID them later for a report.
Find Witnesses: Ask nearby folks if they’ll back you up as witnesses. Get their contact info for your case.
Write down what happened: In your own words, describe the aggressor, the situation, time and date, and any other details that you remember. This serves a double purpose: internally processing what happened, and using it to file a report to the police or other anti-discrimination agencies in your country and/or region.
Report It: Hit up the police website [NL / DE] or head to a station to file a report. Push for follow-up—don’t let it slide. In the Netherlands, you can usually file a report in English too, and are legally entitled to an interpreter of your choice, free of charge.
Set Expectations: In reality, it’s very unlikely that either the police or the prosecutor’s office will take any immediate action. But it’s important for these incidents to make into official crime statistics, so in the future, more resources may be allocated and those crimes taken more seriously. It’s not just a piece of paper, it’s evidence for a crime.
Take time to process what happened, and share it with your friends. Harassment and discrimination takes a toll on our mind and body. Those incidents cause difficulties in our daily lives for days and/or weeks afterwards. Talk to someone, and know that there is only one person to blame: the person who decided to harass you for no reason at all.

Scanned copies of the police report, NL which AVE members filed. Photo credit by Jiye

I filed a report, what now?

Racial discrimination is illegal in all EU Member States, we already know this. However, very few cases of racism (whether at schools, public spaces, or the workplace) make it to the prosecutor’s office. Even in countries where street harassment has been criminalized, very few people choose to report attacks, and even fewer make it into the police and courts. For example, according to the Portuguese law, someone who commits street harassment may be imprisoned for up to a year, but we’ve yet to hear a case where this has happened.

However, we do know that these cases need to be reported. For example, since we provided clear photos of the attackers and car license plates, they will be prosecuted if more similar cases are filed against them. More cases filed under discrimination will lead to more resource allocation in the future. We need to show that anti-Asian discrimination is real, in numbers, facts, and stories.

Filing those cases also helped us process what happened, and to externalize. We were the victims of a crime. We did nothing wrong. We filed a report (it was exhausting), and did everything we could. We also talked amongst us afterwards to share what we felt after the attack.