diff --git a/nominatim/db/utils.py b/nominatim/db/utils.py
index 87b0545f..7d58a668 100644
--- a/nominatim/db/utils.py
+++ b/nominatim/db/utils.py
@@ -67,9 +67,9 @@ def execute_file(dsn, fname, ignore_errors=False, pre_code=None, post_code=None)
 
 
 # List of characters that need to be quoted for the copy command.
-_SQL_TRANSLATION = {ord(u'\\'): u'\\\\',
-                    ord(u'\t'): u'\\t',
-                    ord(u'\n'): u'\\n'}
+_SQL_TRANSLATION = {ord('\\'): '\\\\',
+                    ord('\t'): '\\t',
+                    ord('\n'): '\\n'}
 
 
 class CopyBuffer: