“Since 1984, the political expression of this social disease has been the growth of neo-fascist and far-right parties; the two have fed off each other. I hold the view that Politicians and political parties play a role. Whether it was slavery, Apartheid or the Holocaust, political parties and politicians played a decisive role. The extreme right has a real impact on mainstream politics in Europe. This leads to the denial of equal rights and opportunity for people of African descent in Western Europe and to the inability of political parties to successfully integrate Afro-descendants in their societies. The decision politicians take or fail to take has an impact on the daily lives of people of African descent living in Europe. There is an embarrassing lack of statistics in the public domain to support arguments of racial violence in Western Europe. It is apparent that without official statistics, effective responses cannot be devised. A good example of the impact of discrimination due to direct or indirect political decisions, or the lack of them, is the situation of illegal African migrants in Europe. “The new racism against asylum seekers, marries up the worst racist practices throughout the western world: It is quite clear that thousands of people of African descent live in miserable conditions. Those without legal documents have no access to the welfare state, are exploited as cheap labour and have no rights. The apprehension and psychological despair that this causes cannot be described. Obviously, there is abundant evidence to show that inadequate or inexistent political decisions affect people of African descent in an adverse manner in areas such as education, career development, political participation and cultural representation and in many others. People of African descent are often represented by others in the decision-making processes in Europe.