Restaurant sign bans refugees: ‘If you are fresh off the boat, you are in the wrong place’

JAKARTA, Indonesia – No refugees allowed?

“We are not a refugee center or picnic area,” said a sign at a bistro. “If you are fresh off the boat from Iran or Iraq, Somalia or Bangladesh, you are probably in the wrong place.”

News of the sign went viral after a Facebook post by a certain Felix Dass went viral on Tuesday, May 10.

The restaurant, Ya Udah Bistro, is located in the affluent suburb of Menteng, Jakarta. The restaurant sells a variety of food from different parts of the world, but it is famous for typical Swiss-German cuisine.

On the morning of May 11, the sign was taken down.

Dass said on Facebook, “The goal of putting pressures to put off the sign has met its expectation.”

The bistro also confirmed the removal.

“The sign has been taken off,” Wiwin, the receptionist at the restaurant told Rappler by telephone. She refused to give the contact number of the owner when asked for an interview, but she confirmed the bistro owner is an old Swiss man.

Netizens expressed their anger towards the sign.

“The announcement is rude, abhorrent, insensitive, and downright racist, and it is such a shame that it is put up in a restaurant which claims to have a ‘fine European style,’ demonstrating none of the European principles it should stand for,”Shaffira Hermana‎ wrote on Facebook.

“The restaurant only serves real expats, no refugees?,” another netizen said. —Rappler.com