UK rail firm slammed over Arabic posters
First Capital Connect’s security message for Olympics called ‘completely unintelligible’
A British train company has been criticised after producing an Olympics security poster in Arabic which reads as gibberish.
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The Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) said First Capital Connect’s posters in 13 stations were “completely unintelligible”.
The posters, which warned visitors not to leave items unattended and what do to if such items were found, were also printed in English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic.
However, the Arabic section of these signs made no sense, Council said in a statement.
“The words are back to front. The characters are not joined up as they have to be in Arabic, even when in typeface.
“This oversight does not only represent a lapse in security, but it is also entirely disrespectful to our guests and makes our capital – host city of the Olympic Games – look like a joke.”
CAABU called on First Capital Connect to review its procedures for creating such signs as soon as possible.
In comments published by the BBC, Chris Doyle, director of CAABU, said: “It’s sloppy. If they don’t take remedial action there will be lots of Arabic speakers who will say ‘What a farce’.
“It doesn’t reflect brilliantly on London and looks frankly incompetent. It’s ridiculous”
