Scotland’s first Muslim and South Asian paramedic tells of years of racial abuse

Araf Saddiq, the first Muslim and South Asian to work for the Scottish Ambulance Service, has spoken of the years of racist abuse he suffered while doing his job. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 12 July 2023
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Scotland’s first Muslim and South Asian paramedic tells of years of racial abuse

  • The 57-year-old from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, who was born in the UK to Pakistani parents, took a two-year career break after he was attacked by a patient he was helping
  • ‘This guy had such a hatred for my color … that he attacked me and if he had a knife he would have used it. I had a young family and those kinds of things go through your head,’ he said

LONDON: Araf Saddiq, the first Muslim and South Asian to work for the Scottish Ambulance Service, has spoken of the years of racist abuse he suffered while doing his job.

The 57-year-old paramedic, from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, who was born in the UK to Pakistani parents, expressed pride in being the first person of his background to join the service, the Daily Record newspaper reported. However, despite the fact he was working to help his community, Saddiq said he endured several incidents of racist abuse.

“It happens in different ways — people won’t look at you or talk to you, even if you are the attending clinician; you are asking the questions but they won’t look at you,” he told the newspaper.

“I have been called racist names a number of times. But I was assaulted about 11 years ago.”

In 2010, Saddiq was called a “terrorist” by a man he was taking to hospital, who then attacked him.

“I took a person into hospital and attended to him,” he said. “He didn’t say much in the back of the ambulance but once I got him through the doors, into the hospital and on a chair, he just turned round and called me a ‘black, terrorist b******.’

“I started laughing and, before I knew it, he was off his chair in A&E, punching and kicking me. My colleague jumped in and tried to get him off but I ended up with a few injuries. I dislocated my shoulder and I had a knee injury. It was a pretty vicious attack and it affected me for quite a while afterwards because you think all sorts of things afterwards.

“This guy had such a hatred for my color, even though I was caring and looking after him, that he attacked me, and if he had a knife he would have used it. I had a young family and those kinds of things go through your head, and because of that I took a two-year career break.

“That shows how much it affected me. I have never understood hatred like that or how people can hate you because of what color you are.”

After the attack, Saddiq’s wife, Aysha, a teacher, was offered a job with the Abu Dhabi education department, so he moved with her and their children to the UAE. They returned to Scotland a few years later.

“I was quite down at the time,” he said. “I looked after the kids but after two years I was keen to get going again.”

Saddiq was awarded the Queen's Ambulance Medal in the 2021 New Year’s Honors for his community work.


S.African mother found guilty of selling young daughter

Updated 10 sec ago
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S.African mother found guilty of selling young daughter

  • The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return
  • The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin
SALDANHA: A South African court found a woman guilty Friday of trafficking her six-year-old daughter who has been missing for more than a year, in a case that has outraged the nation.
The two-month trial heard statements from various witnesses that Racquel “Kelly” Smith had revealed to them that she had sold her daughter Joshlin in February 2024, including claims she was paid 20,000 rand ($1,085).
Judge Nathan Erasmus said the evidence of 35 state witnesses led him to find that Smith, 35, and her two co-accused — a boyfriend and a mutual friend — were guilty on the charges of human trafficking and kidnapping.
“I have already found that on the evidence before me, Joshlin was exchanged,” he said.
“The evidence is from all scores there were payments, or at least the promise of payments,” he said, accusing Smith of regarding her daughter, who was aged six when she disappeared, as a “commodity.”
The trial was held in a community hall in the small fishing town of Saldanha Bay, about 135 kilometers (80 miles) north of Cape Town, where the case sparked outrage.
Crowds had gathered outside the hearings, chanting: “We want Joshlin back” and Friday’s verdict was met with a burst of applause.
Many locals had joined the police in days of searches for the girl around their impoverished area.
“You are guilty of... trafficking in persons in relation to Joshlin Smith. On count two, you are also convicted of kidnapping,” Erasmus told the three accused, none of whom took the stand.
He adjourned the court for sentencing, which may run up to life sentences.
Smith initially drew sympathy after her daughter was reported missing. Photographs showing Joshlin’s striking green eyes, broad smile and brown pigtails flooded the media.
The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return.
But it took a turn when prosecutors alleged that Smith sold her daughter to a traditional healer, who was interested in her eyes and fair complexion.
The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin.
Explosive details that played out in court included statements from the girl’s teacher and a pastor, who said the mother had told him of the planned sale of her child in 2023.

Palestinian girls arrive in UK for medical treatment

Updated 02 May 2025
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Palestinian girls arrive in UK for medical treatment

  • The pair, aged 5 and 12, have serious health issues that cannot be treated in Gaza
  • They are the first people from the enclave to be given temporary British visas since the start of the war

LONDON: Two young Palestinian girls have arrived in the UK for medical treatment of serious health conditions.

The girls, named by the BBC as Ghena, aged 5, and Rama, 12, are the first Gazans to be given temporary UK visas since Oct. 7, 2023.

They flew from Egypt, where they have been living with complex conditions after Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed during Israel’s invasion.

Rama, who has a serious bowel condition, previously lived in Khan Younis and told the BBC: “We were so scared. We were living in tents and shrapnel from airstrikes used to fall on us.

“Mum used to suffer so much going to hospitals while bombs were falling and would stand in long queues just to get me a strip of pills. Here I’ll get treatment and get better and be just like any other girl.”

Her mother told the BBC: “I’m very happy for Rama because she’ll get treatment here. As a mother, I felt so sorry in Gaza because I couldn’t do anything to help her. 

“To see your daughter dying in front of your eyes, day by day, watching her weaken and get sicker — it pained me.”

Ghena has fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could cause blindness if left untreated.

Her mother Haneen told the BBC: “Before the war, Ghena was having medical treatment in Gaza, in a specialised hospital. She was getting tests done every six months there and treatment was available.”

Haneen said the hospital was destroyed in the first week of Israel’s invasion, leaving the family with little choice but to seek help elsewhere.

“She began complaining about the pain,” Haneen said. “She would wake up screaming in pain at night.”

Haneen added: “I hope she gets better here. In Gaza there are thousands of injured and sick children who need medical treatment. I hope they get a chance like Ghena.”

The girls were assisted by Project Pure Hope and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which worked with the World Health Organization to get them to the UK for treatment.

PCRF Chairwoman Vivian Khalaf told the BBC: “We came across these cases through an ongoing list that is getting longer and longer of children who need urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza.

“The current physicians and hospitals that continue to be operating to whatever extent have determined that the treatment isn’t available within Gaza.”

Khalaf said 200 children from Gaza have so far been taken abroad for medical treatment, including to the US, Jordan, Qatar and European countries.

The WHO has condemned the state of Gaza’s health system as “beyond description” after 18 months of conflict that has killed more than 50,980 Palestinians in the enclave, according to its Health Ministry.


Over 200 killed in at least 243 Myanmar military attacks since quake

Updated 02 May 2025
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Over 200 killed in at least 243 Myanmar military attacks since quake

  • Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter”
  • A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

GENEVA: The United Nations decried Friday continuing deadly attacks by Myanmar’s military despite a ceasefire declared following a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 3,800 people.
“The unremitting violence inflicted on civilians, despite a ceasefire nominally declared in the wake of the devastating earthquake on 28 March, underscores the need for the parties to commit to, and implement, a genuine and permanent nationwide halt to hostilities and return to civilian rule,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following the 7.7 magnitude quake, the junta joined opponents in calling a temporary halt to hostilities on April 2 for relief to be delivered.
But Turk said that since the quake and up to April 29, “the military has reportedly launched at least 243 attacks, including 171 air strikes, with over 200 civilians reportedly killed.”
“The vast majority of attacks,” he added, had happened after the ceasefire took effect.
While the military renewed once its “largely unobserved ceasefire,” the truce had been allowed to expire on April 30, Turk said.
“It is imperative that the military immediately stop all attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” he insisted.
The UN rights chief decried how “the relentless attacks affect a population already heavily beleaguered and exhausted by years of conflict,” compounded by the impact of the quake.
Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter.”
“They need, and must have, peace and protection,” he said.
“International law is clear that humanitarian aid must be able to reach those in need without impediment.”
Turk urged the military to “put people first, to prioritize their human rights and humanitarian needs and to achieve peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
“Instead of further futile investment in military force, the focus must be on the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.”


Japan’s finance minister calls US Treasury holdings ‘a card’ in tariff talks with Trump

Updated 02 May 2025
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Japan’s finance minister calls US Treasury holdings ‘a card’ in tariff talks with Trump

  • Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February
  • The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff

TOKYO: Japan’s massive holdings of US Treasurys can be “a card on the table” in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.
“It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo.
Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of US government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.
Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option.
Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys.
Kato stressed that various factors would be on the negotiating table with Trump, implying that a promise not to sell Treasurys could help coax Washington into an agreement favorable for Japan.
Trump has disrupted decades of American trade policies, including with key security allies like Japan, by i mposing big import taxes, or tariffs, on a wide range of products.
A team of Japanese officials was in Washington this week for talks on the tariffs.
The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff. The bigger tariffs will hurt at a time when Japanese economic growth is weakening.
Asian holdings of Treasurys have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to the most recent figures.
But some analysts worry China or other governments could liquidate their US Treasury holdings as trade tensions escalate.
US government bonds are traditionally viewed as a safe financial asset, and recent spikes in yields of those bonds have raised worries that they might be losing that status due to Trump’s tariff policies.


Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia

Updated 02 May 2025
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Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia

  • The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary
  • The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military

THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said.
The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports.
The man “confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,” the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday.
A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone.
The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary.
Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania.
Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.