Cavusoglu voices concern over growing racism, discriminatory policies against Turks, Muslims in Western Europe.

Axar.az reports citing AA that Turkish migrants increasingly face discriminatory policies and systematic racism in Western Europe, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

"We are worried over growing discrimination faced by Turkish communities in Western Europe," Cavusoglu said during a meeting in the western German city of Dusseldorf, stressing that discriminatory and racist policies were increasingly becoming systematic, and backed by officials at various levels in those countries.

Europe has witnessed a growing number of cases related to racism and Islamophobia in recent years, triggered by the propaganda launched by far-right parties.

According to a report by Ankara-based think tank SETA, 676 Islamophobic incidents were documented in France in 2018, against 446 in 2017 with a 52% rise.

In Austria, 540 cases of Islamophobic incidents were recorded last year, compared to 309 cases in 2017. In Germany, police recorded 813 hate crimes against Muslims last year, including insults, threatening letters, physical assaults and attacks against mosques. More than 100 mosques and religious institutions were attacked.

The EU’s largest economy, a country of over 81 million people, hosts nearly 4.7 million Muslims -- the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. It includes three million Turkish minority populations as well.