Clubs accused of racism at door
Complaints after blacks and arabs refused entry in Paris and Nice - while white clubbers are allowed in
NIGHTCLUBS in Paris and Nice have been accused of racial discrimination after groups of coloured or Arab clubbers were refused entry - only for whites to be allowed in seconds later.
Anti-race discrimination group SOS Racisme organised test visits to clubs and bars across France as other groups carried out tests in other European cities.
It said it would be lodging complaints with the Préfecture de Police de Paris and judicial authorities in Nice over the refusals - by one club in Paris and two in Nice - which it said were a flagrant breach of the law.
The group said that it was common for "Blacks, Arabs, Romanians and south-east Asians" to be refused entry to clubs and this was highlighted on its third Europe-wide night of tests which involved 10 cities including Vienna, Palermo and Oslo.
Although the club-owners can face fines of up to €45,000 or a three-year jail term, SOS Racisme says it would prefer if offending clubs were forced to close. A six-month "administrative closure" is a sanction allowed by the law and is seen as more dissuasive than a simple fine. It has, so far, only been carried out once; on a bar in Tours in 1999.
The manager of one bar facing charges in Nice, told free newspaper Metro that refusals were done to "keep the mix" in the club right - and they had no problem with racial groups, indeed they had photos of partying mixed-race groups in the foyer.
