The i online newspaper has gone to town with this, which is a longer version of a Birmingham Mail article from a few weeks ago, which was based on the same report.
Taxi drivers suffer racist abuse on a daily basis – but don’t report it as it’s a ‘normal part of the job’
https://inews.co.uk/news/taxi-drivers-u ... ob-1146509
Drivers said the problem is getting worse with some saying they felt Brexit had created a hostile environment for people from ethnic minorities
Taxi drivers are racially abused on a daily basis with the problem so widespread across the country that many reluctantly accept it as a “normal part of the job”, a survey shared exclusively with i has revealed.
A shocking 93 per cent of taxi drivers taking part admitted they had suffered racial abuse from passengers, with attacks ranging from verbal to physical.
Of the 271 drivers who responded from around the country, 84 per cent said racial abuse was dished out to them at least every six months, 20 per cent said it happens once a week and 8 per cent said it takes place more than once a day.
The issue may be massively under-reported as many taxi drivers said they believe nothing will be done by police or that they will lose out financially.
Some revealed the problem is worsening, with irate customers taking out frustrations of the pandemic on those driving them home, while others said they felt Brexit had created a hostile environment for minorities and led to an increase in racist abuse.
Drivers and taxi organisations said racial abuse against drivers isn’t taken seriously enough and reported incidents are only the tip of the iceberg.
“Taxi drivers are the most racially abused of any employee and are seen as an easy target”, David Lawrie, director of the National Private Hire and Taxi Association told i.
“It happens not just daily, but multiple times a day. But many taxi drivers say when they do report racial abuse or attacks, the police don’t do anything because there’s no evidence – and that’s if they turn up at all.
“One driver told me he went to the police to report an incident of racial abuse and the police officer told him: ‘It’s part of the job and you should learn to accept it’.
“Yet if someone goes into a doctor’s surgery or council office and so much as raises their voice, they are evicted from the premises and action is taken against them.
“Taxi drivers have been suffering racial abuse for a long time and are used to it – but they shouldn’t have to be. It is totally unacceptable and until the police and authorities put the message out that it’s completely intolerable, it’s not only going to carry on, it’s going to get worse.”
Dr Karamat Iqbal, an academic who works in race, equality and diversity, decided to research racial abuse of taxi drivers after seeing a shocking video of a taxi driver subjected to a racial rant from a passenger.
The incident happened last May during the early part of the pandemic and a clip of the abuse was viewed more than a million times on social media.
“I’ve lived in the UK for 50 years and have seen a lot of racism and done a lot of work around inequality, so I’m not naive.” he said. “But when I saw this incident of racial abuse directed at a taxi driver, I thought: ‘This is 2020, this cannot still be going on.’
“I began researching racial abuse of taxi drivers and discovered there was no proper monitoring of it and realised it was hidden racism.
“I spoke to taxi driver representatives and they shrugged their shoulders and told me racial abuse of drivers happened daily. This incensed me even more. How can we treat such abuse as normal?”
Racial abuse of taxi drivers is underreported
Dr Iqbal’s research involved interviews with taxi drivers and organisations as well as an online questionnaire completed by 271 drivers from around the country. His findings revealed racial abuse is “normal and frequent” for most drivers and they often keep it to themselves.
“When someone experiences racial abuse, they often tell themselves it hasn’t happened because they want to bury it.” he explained. “When they talk about it, it brings the abuse to the surface.”
Raja Amin, regional president of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), told i that while he can understand why taxi drivers are reluctant to report racial abuse, he is a firm believer in the justice system.
“I understand taxi drivers want to make a living. If they wait around for the police to attend, they lose out on money. So they decide they don’t want to waste three or four hours reporting it.
“But my argument is they shouldn’t ignore it or take the law into their own hands, but must report it to the police and let them handle it. Put a leash on the dog by reporting it.”
Amin added if taxi drivers stand together in reporting racial abuse, more people will be prosecuted.
“Taxi drivers are part of society and this country. They should not be treated in this way. They are vulnerable and an easy target.” he said. “Many accept and tolerate the abuse, but deep down, they feel hurt and suffer anxiety.
“They need to expose and report these people so they can be brought to justice.”
When no one is looking
People behave entirely differently when getting into a taxi, knowing no one is watching them, says Dr Iqbal, whose report is entitled When No one is Looking: Racist Abuse Experiences of British Taxi Drivers.
“Racism directed at taxi drivers is carried out by people who possibly in their day-to-day life wouldn’t do such a thing,” he said. “But they get into a taxi and abuse the driver because no one is looking and there’s no record of it.”
He told i his findings show there are hundreds of thousands of incidents of racist abuse suffered by taxi drivers – of which only some are reported.
Of the 271 taxi drivers who responded to the questionnaire, 63 per cent said they kept racist abuse to themselves as they saw it as “part of the job”, 19 per cent turned to friends for support and 12 per cent to family.
Dr Iqbal said: “Some taxi drivers have been on the receiving end of racial abuse most of their working lives.
“If you go into a workplace you know is abusive, it impacts your mental health.”
The report found passengers often vent personal frustrations, such as relationship breakups, on unsuspecting taxi drivers who become “easy punch bags.”
It also stated activities surrounding Brexit have increased racist abuse for visible minorities.
Alcohol also plays a major part. “Once some people have had a drink, the ugly side of them comes out.” explained Shaz Saleem, former chairman of Dudley Private Hire and Taxi Association, who has recently become a councillor.
“When passengers are sober, their good side is there. When they’re drunk, they become abusive and part of that will be racism.
“Taxi drivers are unfortunately an easy target and face the brunt of abuse. A lot of drivers just take it on the chin and think it’s part of the job – and that is the saddest thing.
“A lot of incidents get ignored. It’s only when they get media attention that they are dealt with. But every case should be dealt with with the highest importance.”
Latest figures show there were 298,800 licensed vehicles in England in 2020 – the highest since comparable records were first collected in 2005.
Of these, 77 per cent were private hire vehicles and 98 per cent of drivers were male.
The figures also showed that 52 per cent of drivers were white and 37 per cent were Asian, meaning the ethnicity is massively over-represented in the industry compared to their presence in the national population at just under seven per cent.
Some people feel taxi drivers are ‘beneath them’
“Racism happens because the person doing it thinks the person they are abusing is ‘below them’,” Dr Iqbal explained.
“In many cases, drivers are highly educated people forced to work in the vulnerable taxi trade.”
Yaseen Aslam, president of the App Drivers and Couriers union, is an IT graduate born in the UK. He began working in the taxi trade in 2006 after being made redundant from his IT job.
“People think driving a taxi is a low skilled job,” he told i. “On top of that, there’s institutional racism.
“We are seen as a bunch of P***s; as low beings without representation.
“The reality is people are forced into these desperate situations working long hours for very little pay and are just grateful to have a job.”
Aslam, who took Uber to court over workers’ rights, says the main issue isn’t about pay, but the lack of respect.
“An average driver has to work around 35 hours just to offset his expenses.
“Taxi drivers sometimes pick up awkward and rough customers – but that doesn’t mean they have the right to abuse you.
“A lot of taxi drivers are from BAME and migrant communities. Some even send money back home to their elderly relatives.
“There’s a lot of burden and pressure on them and in the back of every driver’s mind, they know they face risks every day.
“Many drivers think racism is part of the job. That’s not right. The older generation put up with racism and saw it as being part of a minority. They didn’t always know their rights.
“This isn’t the case for many of the younger generation. But drivers feel they are further victimised when they report racial abuse as it is hard to prove and there’s a ‘the customer is king’ attitude.”
‘Totally unacceptable’ abuse
Taxi drivers and other night time economy workers suffer a lot of racial abuse, even through the pandemic, says Iman Atta, director of Tell Mama, which supports victims of anti-Muslim hate.
“Arguments about fares can escalate and end up with racial abuse.
“But if there’s not enough evidence, it is one person’s word against another.” she said.
“The majority of taxi drivers are from Asian backgrounds. For some, a lack of opportunities led to them becoming taxi drivers.”
Atta says some drivers, particularly those in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, have reported being called paedophiles because of the Rotherham grooming scandal.
In one case, a passenger asked a driver: “Are you going to behead me now?”
“This type of abuse against taxi drivers is unacceptable.” she said. “People should not suffer in silence.”
Bev Hughes, Greater Manchester’s deputy mayor for policing, crime, criminal justice and fire, condemned the racial abuse of taxi drivers.
“Taxi drivers are essential frontline workers. During the pandemic they have regularly risked their personal health to transport people on essential journeys.
“It is totally unacceptable to learn that many hard-working taxi drivers are regularly subjected to racist abuse while they are doing their job. No-one, ever, should be made to feel unsafe at work.
“Greater Manchester has zero tolerance for racism and racist abuse. Greater Manchester Combined Authority stands in solidarity with the taxi trade and we condemn anybody who subjects drivers to vile abuse.”
A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which brings police forces in the UK together to help policing coordinate operations, reform and improve, told i: “Cab drivers who experience racist abuse should report it to the police who will take reports seriously and consider what action can be taken.”
The Crown Prosecution Service said that hate crimes such as racial abuse of taxi drivers are abhorrent.
The CPS states it will always prosecute individuals if cases pass their legal test and will always ask for a sentence uplift (harsher sentence) to reflect the seriousness of the hate crime.
In 2020-21, the CPS had a 86 per cent conviction rate for hate crime offences and was successful in getting harsher sentences for 79 per cent of cases.
Figures shows that in the 12 months to March 2020, the CPS prosecuted 10,950 hate crime cases in England and Wales.
- Nature of the abuse
Some of the racial abuse and incidents reported by drivers:
• Go back to your own country
• Get out of my country – the foreigners are taking all the jobs
• Called the N word, the P word and called a terrorist
• Spat at, called a P, black c***, monkey
• Called a P*** by a customer who I refused to take because of his aggression. He was getting late for a flight and was shouting at me, threatening and swearing
• Told to go back where I came from and that after Brexit, I am going to be next
• I was yelled at for asking a mother to put a seatbelt on her son. She used racial slurs and called me a P***
- Key survey findings
Dr Karamat Iqbal conducted an online questionnaire circulated through Facebook and taxi networks.
Although it only gives a snapshot of the situation, the findings are harrowing.
He conducted the survey after realising there was very little data relating to racist abuse against taxi drivers and most councils did not hold ethnicity data for taxi drivers.
There were 271 respondents from different areas of the country including Manchester, Birmingham and London and 93 per cent reported they had suffered racial abuse from their passengers.
Nearly half (49 per cent) of the respondents had been working in the trade for more than 10 years, 22 per cent had for five to 10 years and 27 percent between one and five years.
When asked how often they had suffered abuse:
8% – more than once a day
6% – once a day
20% – once a week
12% – once a fortnight
20% – once a month
18% – once every six months
16% – once a year or less
‘I fear for my family’: Taxi driver who filmed passenger’s racist abuse on why he’s quitting the industry
https://inews.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-fi ... ry-1146600
‘I don’t know if an abusive passenger will be carrying a knife. I fear for my safety and for my family’
A taxi driver who filmed the moment a customer racially abused him while a passenger in his car told i he is quitting the taxi industry as he cannot face the “continual abuse”.
Abid Mustafa, 39, who lives in Birmingham, had only been a taxi driver for a few weeks when he picked up a man on 15 May 2020 who called him a “Muslim terrorist” and accused him of coming to rob the UK.
Mr Mustafa filmed the abuse, which later went viral, telling i it was so shocking to him as he had never experienced anything like it in his 14 years in the UK.
“As soon as he sat in the car, the man asked me: ‘Do you know where you are?’ I was confused and thought he was asking what road I was on because I was a new driver,” Mr Mustafa said.
“I told him I knew what road I was on, but then he said: ‘You are in f******g England and you are working here and this country is giving you so much’.
“I told him I was happy to have work during the pandemic and knew I was lucky. But then he said: ‘Why don’t you go back to your own country and work there?’ Why did you come here?’”
Mr Mustafa had been working as a gardener and landscaper, but Covid-19 resulted in his work drying up. “I had rent and bills to pay so knew I had to do something to earn extra money,” he told i.
“With everything shutting down, becoming a taxi driver was the only option open to me. I also knew it would be flexible while my children were at home because the schools were shut and I could be home for my wife and children.”
“I was a manager at a Subway branch before the gardening and landscaping and I know customers can get aggressive. But it’s different in a taxi as there’s no barrier between you and the customer and no colleagues to support you.”
After the verbal abuse, Mr Mustafa gave his customer the option of leaving the taxi without paying and finding another, or calling his company and asking them to send another driver.
The passenger persuaded him he would stop and they continued the journey. But when they arrived at his destination, he refused to get out.
It was at this point the driver decided to film his passenger so he could give footage to the police. He even warned the passenger he was filming him and told he he would share it on Facebook so others could witness his behaviour.
But the man, who was drunk at the time, continued with a tirade of explicit abuse and at one point Mr Mustafa a “Muslim c*** “. He also said: “This is England – respect the country you’re in” and “we’ll blow you out the f******g water.”
After the video was circulated, West Midlands Police arrested a 53-year-old man on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence. He later received a caution with Mr Mustafa encouraging leniency and the pair met under the restorative justice programme.
The driver was later made the first honorary ambassador for the West Midlands Private Hire and Taxi Trade Association.
However, Mr Mustafa told i that since that first incident, he has been subjected to racial abuse at least once a week – sometimes, several times a week. It has become so bad that he has decided to leave the profession altogether.
“I don’t want to be a taxi driver any more,” he admitted. “I can’t handle the abuse any more. It’s not just verbal abuse but the risk of physical abuse because there is no barrier between the driver and the passenger.
“I don’t know if an abusive passenger will be carrying a knife. I fear for my safety and for my family.
“My wife doesn’t want me to put my life at risk as a taxi driver. So I am just doing enough to cover our bills and expenses as we do not have a penny saved.”
In once recent incident, a male passenger reacted angrily after being asked by Mr Mustafa for the taxi fare upfront – the under instruction of his company. He punched the driver in the face leaving him with a black eye.
Mr Mustafa reported it to the police, but was informed officers were too busy to attend and to wait with his vehicle. He told i he waited for more than an hour before calling again to be told officers were held up with other incidents. He eventually gave up and went home.
On another occasion, Mr Mustafa encountered a group of women who became abusive as they didn’t want to pay the full fare.
He stopped the taxi and one woman scratched his face with her nails leaving four deep cuts. This time, the driver said he didn’t bother calling the police as he felt it would be pointless on a busy Saturday night.
It comes as a survey shared with i found the majority of taxi drivers are subjected to racial abuse and attacks daily.
“We need more support from the police,” he said. “If the police were able to attend quickly, we could reduce these abusive incidents. But the problem is, passengers who behave like this know the police won’t come in time to catch them.”
