Monday is International Day for the Elimination of Racism. To mark the date, the French action group SOS Racisme tested 136 home rental agencies and discovered that nearly half of them continue to accept property owners' demands for a discriminatory policy in the allocation of rental contracts, reports Radio France Internationale.
International Day for the Elimination of Racism is marked on March 21st, in memory of the 69 people killed by South African police on this day in 1960 at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville against the apartheid government.
The SOS Racisme test was carried out using volunteers who contacted the housing agencies, pretending to have properties to rent, and insisting on certain racial requirements.
The findings are stark. Nearly half (48.5 percent) of the agencies contacted agreed to enforce the racial requirements of the owners.
According to the SOS Racisme report, one agency in four agreed to select potential renters directly on the basis of racial dicrimination demanded by the owners.
The results are a slight improvement on a similar test carried out three years ago, when 51 percent of agencies agreed to enforce a discriminatory policy.
Another quarter of the agencies tested accepted an indirect form of discrimination, agreeing to retain only those applications from racial groups considered as "suitable" by the property owners.
For the 136 agencies tested, according to SOS Racisme, people of North African or Black origins ran an almost 50 percent chance of being the victims of racial discrimination.