Private drivers worry racist violence and repeats of final yr’s riots, survey finds | EUROtoday

A brand new survey has revealed the alarming risks non-public rent drivers face whereas on the job, with many expressing worry for his or her security because of violent assaults.

The GMB union’s ballot of 400 drivers uncovered a sequence of harrowing incidents, together with drivers being threatened with knives and machetes, subjected to racial abuse, and having stones hurled at their autos.

The findings paint a disturbing image of the dangers these drivers encounter day by day, with one respondent admitting to carrying a baseball bat for defense. Many drivers reported being too scared to work.

Looking particularly on the far-right riots that focused ethnic minorities final yr, an enormous 85 per cent of GMB’s respondents mentioned they consider comparable occasions might occur this yr.

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One driver mentioned it was ‘”heartbreaking to witness humanity at its worst”.

In July and August last year, dozens of far-right rallies took place across the UK over several days, with violence aimed at targets like immigration centres, lawyers’ places of work and charities. Over 1000 folks had been arrested throughout and after the occasions, with a whole bunch injured.

The survey from GMB discovered that nearly half (46 per cent) of their non-public rent drivers say they had been impacted by the riots themselves.

GMB nationwide officer Eamon O’Hearn, talking on the union’s annual convention in Brighton, mentioned: “These terrifying survey results show our private hire drivers were on the front line of last year’s riots, and a huge majority fear they may happen again this summer.”

One respondent mentioned: “I passed by a mosque and had several people approach me with knives and machetes so I speeded up and did the quickest U-turn ever and got out of there.”

Another mentioned a passenger in a van threw a cup of espresso in his automotive.

Another driver mentioned: “I do not feel safe in the United Kingdom any more, I have started to carry my own baseball bats as I am in fear of having acid thrown at me.”