PARIS, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The French anti-discrimination group SOS Racism has filed charges of racial discrimination against a Paris disco.
The charges against the 15th arrondissement disco, in the city's Left Bank, come after SOS found two African and North African couples had been refused entry.
Other couples, similarly dressed but of European origin, were allowed entry to the club, SOS found according to a report in Le Figaro newspaper Monday.
The apparent discrimination adds to a larger debate in France over whether it has integrated its ethnic immigrant population.
Riots staged by ethnic immigrant youths in France have sparked soul searching on issues of integration and discrimination.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has announced a raft of promised measures to give ethnic immigrants greater economic and social opportunities.
But he has rejected the idea of introducing a French variation of affirmative action -- an anathema in a country that ostensibly embraces the notion of a color-blind, egalitarian society.
