Car2000, a minicab firm in Rochdale, has said that they have had customers requesting white drivers. Rochdale has been in the media spotlight since 2011 over the Rochdale Grooming Gang–men of Asian origin who were convicted of trafficking vulnerable girls for sex around towns in the north of England.
Manager Stephen Campbell said: “we have had quite a lot of customers requesting what they call a ‘local’ driver. A bit insane if you consider that most of the [Asian] lads were born in Rochdale."
Out of the 12 originally charged, 9 men predominantly of British-Pakistani origin were convicted of sex trafficking and 47 girls were identified as victims of the trafficking ring.
Campbell said the firm receives up to 60 calls a week asking for a white driver–"it’s a business and we have got a duty to do what the customer asks us to. I don’t think we can discriminate against the customer in the same way. It is a business at the end of the day. We have a large bank loan to pay back."
MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, said "This is extremely worrying and a stark reminder of the impact that grooming scandals have had on northern towns. This will not be a problem exclusive to our borough, I'm sure."
In the recent byelection in Heywood and Middleton, a constiunecy in the Rochdale metropolitan area, UKIP ran a campaign which heavily leant on stirring up tensions over child grooming, they came within 700 votes of overturning Labour's majority.
[via The Guardian]
