British tourist cuts short holiday because of racist incident

Source: www.blackbritain.co.uk

When 25 year old Aisha Bingham rented a villa in Bulgaria from a good friend to take a late summer break, she was expecting a pleasant holiday with her 20 year old sister Fayola and her 14 year old brother, Omar.

She arrived in Bulgaria on August 13 with her younger sister and that evening just relaxed. But the following day when they stayed out until five or six o’ clock in the evening, on the way back to the villa: “We heard someone pass by in a car and bark at us. We were walking towards a bus stop to catch a bus to come home.”

Bingham said she wasn’t sure if the barking was directed towards them. “But a couple of days later I heard it again. This time I spun around and looked at the individual and the person looked directly at me and was barking at me…I thought the only reason someone could be barking at me is either if they are calling themselves a dog or calling me a dog.”

Bingham found herself and her siblings the recipients of very unwelcome attention: “We were getting the looks, the stares and the scornful glances at us.” She tried to ignore it and carry on with the holiday. But she was mindful of the fact that they were very isolated:

“We hadn’t seen any black people at all, so we thought maybe it’s just that they haven’t encountered black people and were unsure of how to treat us or curious about what we look like.”

But the day after Bingham’s brother arrived on Friday Aug 18, they had a rude awakening and were left in no doubt about the reason for the unwelcome attention they had been receiving. During lunch at a seaside restaurant, a young man in his late twenties marched up to their table and made a remark in Bulgarian, which neither Aisha Bingham nor her siblings understood.

Bingham then explained to the man that they did not understand Bulgarian and asked if he could speak in English. It turned out that the man could speak English fluently: “He said to me what the f--- are you doing here? You don’t belong in Europe. Get the f--- out of my country. I f----- hate you. You’re a f----- nigger.”

The incident took place on a beach near the main road which was packed with people. But far more disturbing than the racial and threatening abuse that Bingham was subjected to was the complicity of people in the vicinity who overhead and witnessed the verbal attack who said and did nothing.

“Nobody in the restaurant got up to help me. Nobody in the restaurant said anything to the man. I was so shocked and embarrassed.”

Bingham stood up from the table with her siblings behind her, directly facing the man. She said: “I didn’t know what to do. My mind went blank. All I could think of was that I had to protect my brother and sister. He was right in front of my face. I said ‘excuse me can I get some help over here please?’ And I said that about five times. Nobody came. Not even the waitress…it brought tears to my eyes. I was crying profusely in the middle of the restaurant.”

Bingham said that only around five minutes later when the man continued screaming and shouting did a waitress walk over and lead the man away from the restaurant and told him to leave. A waitress came up to her afterwards and told her “not to worry, it’s the tradition, that’s what the people do.”

After the incident Bingham left the restaurant without finishing her meal and caught a taxi back to the villa where she decided to call the police via the emergency number but had no luck because no-one spoke English.

On Friday evening Bingham called the British Embassy but the office was closed and so she called the emergency number. Bingham was told that there was nothing that the Embassy could do apart from call a lawyer or interpreter to assist with communication. But by that time Bingham just wanted to leave the country.

Bingham told Black Britain that when she called the Embassy on Monday Aug 21 and asked to speak to a British person she was told that she needed to make an appointment which needed to be put in writing and posted to the Embassy office.

The cost of returning to the UK early was £600 but Bingham could not afford this and was extremely distressed at the thought of having to remain in a hostile environment for another week and a half. When Black Britain spoke to Bingham on the morning of August 21 she said: “I am literally in fear of venturing outside of my flat because I don’t know what could happen.”