Two Muslims who worked as security guards at an airport in Paris recently claimed they were sacked from their jobs for sporting beards that were too long. Both men have sought legal action after the management at Orly Airport allegedly asked all Muslim staff to trim their facial hair in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris.
One of the men, identified as Bachir, shared how he received negative feedback from colleagues, with one of his supervisors offering to ‘bring in a lawnmower’ to trim his long beard. However, he refused to comply with the grooming policy, clarifying that his beard was for fashionable purposes, as he wanted to ‘look like a hipster’, and not a religious one.
The 32-year-old Bachir said he was fired only days after he filed a discrimination complaint, though he had been working at the same airport for five years.
The second guard, identified as 34-year-old Bechir, said he too suspects that he was fired over his beard being too long. A lawyer has agreed to represent both men –Bachir and Bechir– stating how companies have become excessively paranoid after the November 13 terror attacks carried out by Islamic State militants.
A spokesperson for the Swedish firm Securitas, which deploys security personnel at the airport, said that Bachir was sacked for serious breaches of the company’s rules. He said that Bachir’s beard was only an additional factor in his dismissal while citing lateness, absence and continual chattering at work as the essential factors.
Security has been beefed up across Paris, with secure zone clearance being taken away from approximately 70 people working at Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle airports last month. So-called red badges are given to those employed in secure zones, including people working as aircraft cleaners, baggage handlers and suppliers.
Chief executive officer of Aeroports de Paris, Augustin de Romanet, said that the prefecture (the representative of the state) which issues these red badges conducted a screening after the Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed and 350 injured.
“Nearly 70 red badges were withdrawn after the attacks, mainly for cases of radicalization,” he said.
He said approximately 85,000 people currently have secure zone clearance in both the airports, with most of them working for various airlines or several hundred subcontractors.
“To be issued a red badge, you have to be cleared by police; and if you work for a company that carries out security checks of in-flight luggage, you need three police checks,” De Romanet said.
He also said that the deployment of military personnel at both airports has been increased by 50 percent after the Paris attacks, and passport officers are double checking the identities of all people leaving the country; including those visiting Schengen zone, the border-free area in the European Union.
Photo Credits: Metro UK
