Anti-racism activists who secretly filmed private beaches on the Cote d’Azur are planning legal action for allegedly discriminating on the French Riviera. The ‘SOS-Racisme’ association sent couples of different ethnic origins to exclusive coastal access points and used hidden cameras to record how each was received.
A couple who described them as “North African looking” who asked for sunbeds were told they were conservative. A few minutes later, a white couple with the same order on the same private beach got lounge chairs in the front row near the sea. Other activists said they could not make a reservation if they were given a name that seemed foreign.
“With a name that sounds African, the place was full. When I called him and gave him a French name, it was strange that there were still places,” one of them told the French newspaper Le Monde.
The organization SOS-Racisme alleged that a third of the private beaches in Juan-les-Bains and Antibes were illegally discriminatory and that two-thirds of the tested clubs and bars in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence operated an illegal group of clients based on their origins. . “We found that discrimination can be based on clothing, skin colour, physical appearance and a person’s origin. It is unfair and you are not likely to live like this,” Karima Slimani of SOS Racisme Nice told France 3 TV.
“This situation is the result of a clear failure of public authorities to prohibit racial discrimination,” denounced Dominique Sobo, President of SOS Racisme, assuring that the organizations’ findings would be communicated to the police and local authorities. “We will be watching closely to see what legal measures will be taken,” he added.
A report by France’s National Advisory Commission on Human Rights on racism, published last July, claimed that French society is becoming more tolerant, setting the annual “tolerance index” at 68 out of 100, the highest ever, according to the commission’s secretary-general. , Magali Lafourcade, who stated, however, that prejudice against some communities – including Muslims and Roma – remains a particular concern.
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