This was bound to happen sooner or later: A college student from Sierra Leone was turned down for housing by a potential landlord out of an abundance of caution due to Ebola fears. Amara Bangura recently arrived in the U.K. region of Norwich from West Africa ready to continue his studies. He was obviously in need of housing and was almost instantly turned down by two potential landlords that took a look at his passport. One potential landlord sent Bangura a letter explaining their decision to rent to someone else.
According to BBC's Newsbeat, Bangura was crushed to be turned down and he shared the letter which stated:
"Under normal circumstance your profile would be a great profile to be one of our lodgers. However, given that the world is about to probably experience an Ebola epidemic, we have decided not to accept anyone that has been anywhere near the Ebola outbreak within the last two months, or is likely to visit those areas in the near future."
With the world fearing that Ebola will become a pandemic, a unique gray area has been created—be extra cautious or you could become gravely ill—and unfortunately that kind of decision is likely to hurt a lot of people.
Are you surprised that he was discriminated against because he is from the West African hot zone? Would you have done the same thing if faced with a similar decision? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
