An estate agent's office in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret last month published a racist advertisement for the rental of an apartment in which it outlined conditions for the selection of future tenants, stating: "Important note for the selection of tenants: French nationality mandatory, no Blacks. Building with police officers only", reports International Business Times.
The discriminatory document, which was redacted for the Laforêt estate agents in charge of renting out the flat, was discovered by a young man identified only as Moustapha when he was viewing the flat.
The young man described to French daily Le Parisien how he challenged the estate agent after discovering the document. "He gave me very vague explanations, saying that it did not come from him. At the time, I was very shocked," he said. "I am not naive, I know that this kind of discrimination exists but there, it is really explicit and displayed."
Moustapha published the ad on Twitter on November 25th, demanding that Laforêt, one of France's largest estate agency and lettings network, commented, and asking rights organisation SOS Racisme and the official rights ombudsman, the Défenseur des droits, for their opinion.
The agency's head office, which was accused of taking weeks to respond, published a statement on Twitter on December 26th after users slammed the practice using #laforet.
It read: "We are appalled by this information and find totally unacceptable and inappropriate. The management and agencies of Laforêt's branch network vigorously condemn any form of discrimination. Values such as equality, diversity and respect for others are part of our core principles. We will undertake the necessary actions to ensure that this does not happen again. We present our most sincere apologies."
The manager of the agency, Laurent Balestra, also rejected responsibility for the ad, saying it was the fault of a "collaborator who is no longer part of the company".
Balestra told Le Parisien: "She wrote this ad under the pressure of the (property) owner, it is really an isolated case. I am sorry, I am ashamed of what is happening. We've stopped working with this owner". Since the scandal, the manager said he contacted several organisations "to put in place training to raise awareness of discrimination and ensure that this does not happen again".