French Restaurant Accused of Discrimination Against North Africans

Rabat – Paris-based restaurant La Plage Parisienne has been accused of systematic discrimination against North African clients.

Tajmaat, an online social community, the restaurant on April 30 on a tweet stating that “requests for reservations with Maghrebi-sounding names are systematically refused for ‘high attendance’ #strangecoincidence.”

Tajmaat further attached receipts of four reservations for April 30 at 8:45 p.m. Two of the reservations that were under Mohammed and Mehdi were rejected while reservations under Ellie and Christophe were confirmed for the same time slot.

The online community additionally urged North African immigrants in France to visit restaurants and businesses owned by members of their community to avoid such inconveniences.

In response, Cannes-based lawyer Sophiane El Baroudi filed a complaint against La Plage Parisienne restaurant owned by Beaumarly Group “for proven acts of discrimination.”

Directed to the Prosecutor’s office, the complaint stated that the “restaurant systematically refuses reservations from people whose names sound foreign, particularly Maghrebi, on the pretext of high attendance for this purpose.”

El Baroudi noted that such acts of discrimination are punishable by articles 225-1 and 225-2 of the French penal code.

In late March, the French anti-racism association, Maison des Potes, filed complaints against 37 companies for posting discriminatory job offers that exclude non-French or non-European citizens from certain jobs considered to be critical to France’s national security.

Such discriminatory measures have even been extended to employees in roles such as painters and cleaners within defense, telecommunication, ecology, and energy companies, according to Maison des Potes.

The conversation on rising anti-Islam rhetoric has been at that the heart of the French political scene for decades. In every new election, French politicians use the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam discourses to attract votes.

The latest election was no exception, with Macron, Le Pen, and Zemmour all making headlines for controversial statements on “Islamist separatism” and Islam’s supposed incompatibility with France’s “republican values.”