A British Sikh, Nav Sawhney (25), was a victim of violent racial hate crime, while trying to enter a Krakow nightclub, in Poland.
Nav Sawhney, a London-born turbaned Sikh had travelled Auschwitz with a friend on Saturday 28th November, and decided to have a night out in Krakow, with a few other fellow Brits who they had met.
The group headed off to a club which had received great reviews, but were left astonished when all of Sawhney's friends, who are white, were allowed into the club while he was refused entry with “no questions asked”.
Nav Sawney, who is an engineer expressed, “The bouncer stopped me and said I was not allowed in. I asked why very calmly and after a few minutes passed, he was shouting at me and spitting at me and was very aggressive. My friend came down the stairs [in the club] and asked why I was not allowed in. It was said it was the dress code, But my friend said 'we are dressed exactly the same'. [The bouncer] pointed at my turban and said 'that hat, Muslim terrorist'. They were being really aggressive.”
Sawhney decided to walk away and shake the bouncer's hand to show that he agreed to disagree with him, when he was allegedly punched with great force which caused his turban to come off and fall to the ground. Police arrived 30 minutes after the alleged assault.
He stated that the police said, “What did you expect when you come to Krakow after the Paris attacks. Brown people and white people are treated differently here to in the UK.” Sawhney and his friend were then allegedly asked to get into the van as it was unsafe for them to be on the streets.
A Polish Embassy UK spokesman wrote a message on Sawhney's Facebook page, stating, “We are very sorry about what happened to you. Such racist behaviour is unacceptable and we are glad to hear that many people stopped to express their support for you and contempt for the incident.”
