The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner Nils Muiznieks is to visit Athens soon for talks with government officials about a sharp increase in racially-motivated attacks on immigrants that have been attributed to extreme right-wing supporters.

Just a few days after international advocacy group Human Rights Watch expressed concern about an inadequate police response to a spike in racist violence in Greece, Muiznieks told To Vima newspaper that his office had received a large number of complaints about racially-motivated assaults, noting that in most cases it was “well documented” that the assailants were members of the extreme right-wing Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn).

The commissioner expressed concern about the tendency of the party’s MPs to perform Nazi-style salutes, adding that the grouping resembles other ultra-right parties in Europe but was the most openly extremist and pro-Nazi among them.