€20,000 demanded for ethnicity list
Prosecutor asks judge to levy fine on social housing group who kept database of racial backgrounds.
A SOCIAL housing group should be fined €20,000 for keeping records on the ethnic background of people applying for houses, said a state prosecutor.
The Office HLM de Saint-Etienne is accused of keeping a database of ethnicity between March 2003 and March 2006 and using it to refuse housing in certain areas.
State prosecutor Philippe Chassaigne said the HLM, now known as Métropole Habitat, showed “a will to discriminate”.
“This was selection based on a political quota,” he said, adding that it showed “an absence of respect for the law”.
France has banned the keeping of ethnic details since the Second World War.
President Sarkozy recently called for a change in the law to allow the government to gauge the extent of racial discrimination.
The association denies that the list was used to discriminate negatively but said it was kept to allow the group to preserve an ethnic mixture in different areas.
The lawyer for the social housing group Michel Béal, acknowledged that discrimination had taken place but denied that it had been intentional and added that the list had received the assent of the state.
A judgement is expected on February 3.
