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Deliveroo driver jailed for refusing orders from Jewish restaurants

The delivery man was jailed for four months for discrimination
The delivery man was jailed for four months for discrimination Copyright  AP Photo
Copyright AP Photo
By Euronews with AFP
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The Algerian, who was in France illegally, will be deported after he completes his four-month prison sentence.

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A Deliveroo driver who refused to take orders from Jewish restaurants on the grounds of their ethnicity has been jailed for four months.

The 19-year-old Algerian, who was also found to be in France illegally, will be deported after completing his prison sentence, the Interior Ministry announced.

At the hearing, one of the restaurateurs claimed the delivery man had told him: "I do not deliver to Jews," before cancelling the order in front of him.

The case came after two kosher restaurants reported that drivers working for Deliveroo refused to transport their food because they didn't want to deliver to Jewish customers.

A regional Jewish institution, the Israelite Consistory of the Bas-Rhin region, s denounced the drivers' actions, calling it called “openly anti-Semitic discrimination.”

Only one delivery worker was ultimately involved in the court action.

Prosecutors had opened an investigation into “discrimination based on ethnic origin in the framework of providing a service,” a prosecutor’s aide said.

The delivery driver arrived in France on a tourist visa and was illegally present in the country. He was also using another person’s Deliveroo account.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he had “decided to expel the food delivery worker from the national territory" after his prison time.

Deliveroo spokesman Damien Steffan told local broadcaster France Bleu on Tuesday that the company thinks “anti-Semitic acts, like all racist or discriminatory acts of all kinds, are unacceptable.”

Deliveroo has around 14,000 drivers in France and has seen its business grow considerably during the coronavirus pandemic.

The case drew the national government’s attention amid long-running efforts to fight anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination in France.

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