Bus drivers near Bristol accused of refusing to pick up asylum seekers

theguardian.com:

Some bus drivers working on a route near Bristol have been accused of refusing to pick up asylum seekers who live in an isolated rural hotel.

Asylum seekers who need to get into Bristol from the hotel in north Somerset for medical appointments, college classes or legal appointments have little choice but to wait on the A38 for a Stagecoach West bus.

But some asylum seekers and local people have claimed that men have been left at the side of the road by drivers refusing to pick them up.

Avon and Somerset police confirmed on Monday it was called after a driver said he could not accept a cash payment from a group of asylum seekers.

Officers attended but did not identify any offences. A local person contacted the police and told them she believed the incident was racially motivated. Initially the force did not log it as a hate incident but on Monday accepted it was wrong not to have done so.

Stagecoach West insisted it had found no evidence to support the allegations and did not tolerate discrimination. It said one of its drivers had been verbally abused and spat at.

Angie Bual, who lives nearby and has been supporting the asylum seekers, said she was “outraged” by reports that the bus did not always stop – and angered at the initial police response.

She said: “The bus is their only transport in and out of Bristol. For some they use it to go to college, health appointments, to receive legal aid – or to simply leave the hotel, which is far from amenities.”

Two asylum seekers waiting for the bus on Monday claimed the bus often drove past them when it was not full. One of them, a 35-year-old Iranian man, said: “I feel terrible when that happens. It makes me feel very unwelcome.” A young man from Eritrea, who was on his way to an