The Generalitat of Catalonia has reported this Tuesday that it has opened a case file information to the chain of restaurants Pans & Company for refusing entry and service to a group of three young men of moroccan origin who wanted to take coffee in a franchise of this brand is located in the station of train of high speed in Girona. The entity Espai anti-racist, of this city, has denounced the facts in the social networks by means of a video recorded by the young people themselves, in which an employee explains to them that his superior has viewed by cameras and have been advised to not pay the service. Pans & Company has denied in a press release that has been discriminated against customers because of their origin or race, but will open an internal investigation.

The video broadcast by Espai anti-racist, an association of Girona and Salt —the city that adjoins the first and has a high percentage of immigrant population— refers to some events that occurred on the afternoon of Monday. In the images, recorded by one of the young people, go to a used restaurant Pans & Company of the train station, explaining to the clients, aged 18 and 19 years, why not let them enter the premises nor serve them coffee. “But this coffee you can drink around the world”, says one of the young people, to which the clerk responds “my boss has a few cameras here and here and says this, this, this and this do not enter in my local, and do not fall”.

Faced with this refusal, one of them says to him: “this Is the first time that I come here, I’m from Manresa”, but fails to convince the employee, which ensures that your head has told that “there are a number of people that do not fall”. “I’m not going to serve coffee because my boss does not want” to, ends.

The spokesman of Espai anti-racist, Mustafa Shaimi, explains that two of the young people are part of the entity was notified by the entity against the refusal of the restaurant to serve them. Shaimi came to the place and asked for a complaint form, which the employee refused. “She was overcome by the situation, but the order was discriminatory and racist,” explains Shaimi. The activist then called the Mossos d’esquadra, but, as stated, the Mossos have not seen the need to raise act on these facts. Finally, the clerk agreed to submit a complaint form, with which the youth reported the facts to the Agency of Consumption of the Generalitat. “We will look if we can do something more, because this may be a hate crime”, summarizes Shaimi, remember that facts such as these are “the norm in Girona, happens very often.”

In a statement, Pans & Company says, “recently there have been some incidents in the establishment of people who have expressed behaviors that are not suitable and some of the dismissive attitudes towards workers and customers of the local”, although it does not link to these young people in particular with the incidents. The company says that “in no case” has discriminated against the entry of the young people for their origin or race, and remember that the company is based on the values of “equality and respect”. The release ends by explaining that the chain of restaurants has opened an internal investigation to “find out what has been happening and take action, where appropriate”. Pans & Company is a trademark of the company Eat Out until 2016, was part of the group Agroalimen, at which point it was sold to the Portuguese group Ibersol.

To meet this complaint, the government has decided to open a record to the company. On his Twitter account, the minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Chakir The Homrani, has called the acts the “intolerable”: “it does Not serve a customer because of their origin is called racism,” he said.

Sources from the department of Labor have indicated that the file is opened to gather information and determine the pathway by which it will sanction the company. “It shows that the video justified the immediate opening of the record”, pointing from the department.

The precedent of the Mcdonald’s of Melilla

The facts that investigates the Generalitat by “racist attitudes” have a precedent in Melilla. A social worker at Doctors of the World reported in the past month of November, that an establishment of Mcdonald’s of this autonomous city was denied entry to three foreign minors, unaccompanied minors, those who were expelled for being “criminals”. He denounced the activist Doctors of the World, Noor Houda, who spread the facts on a voice message for Whatsapp that became viral. The chain of fast food restaurants then appeared their commitment “against the inequality and exclusion” and condemned any racist attitude, but it is not clarified whether it would take measures.

Faith of errors

In the first edition of this story stated in error that the young people discriminated against were black instead of moroccan

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR