An asylum seeker has begged to be sent back to his native Somalia because he claims it is ‘not safe’ for him to remain in the small Midlands town where he lives.
Nuneaton in Warwickshire has become a hotbed of tension amid a string of anti-migrant protests following reports two Afghan asylum seekers had been arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
There were just a handful of asylum seekers in the town a few years ago, but their numbers have now grown to 247.
This has led to tension, with disturbing footage that emerged this week showing a local businessman being subjected to sickening racist abuse as he gave a TV interview.
Nuneaton does not have migrant hotels and all the asylum seekers there live in housed in HMOs (houses of multiple occupancy), but this itself has led to anger from locals in the midst of a housing crisis.
Asylum seeker Yusuf had lived in the UK for two decades, but recently had his right to work stripped following a ‘serious’ assault. He said he’s been begging the Home Office to deport him for the last five months.
‘This country is not safe, but my country (Somalia) is now safe – I want to go back,’ he told Sky News.
Somalia remains in the grip of a vicious civil war that has been going on since 1991, yet Yusuf was adamant he will be safer there instead of Nuneaton.
Asylum seeker Yusuf had lived in the UK for two decades, but recently had his right to work stripped following a ‘serious’ assault. He said he’s been begging the Home Office to deport him
Nuneaton has seen regular anti-migrant protests following the arrests of two men – said to be Afghan asylum seekers
Activists holding a banner reading ‘remigration now’ outside Warwickshire Justice Centre
Home Office show Nuneaton has 19 asylum seekers per 10,000 residents – putting it at 87th in the country in terms of concentration.
While many residents are reluctant to share their views for fear of being labelled racist, some came forward to explain their frustrations.
Alan, 77, said: ‘It’s the ones that are trying to get here illegally I don’t like.
‘I’m not too happy about that, because we’ve got young, 20-year-olds getting married… that are struggling to get on the property ladder.’
The leader of Warwickshire County Council, George Finch, is Reform’s youngest councillor and has spoken out to defend local protesters against accusations of racism.
He said it was wrong to put asylum seekers in houses and they should be kept in disused army bases instead.
The tense situation in Nuneaton was illustrated by a recent TV interview with local business owner Zahin, 32.
He has only just started to speak, stating his age, when he was interrupted by two women walking along the street with what appears to be a group of children.
The tense situation in Nuneaton was illustrated by a recent TV interview with local business owner Zahin, 32. He was interrupted by a woman holding a glass of beer
The woman moved in front of the camera while shouting a string of obscenities directed towards Zahin. Her face was obscured by Sky News
One of the women, holding a glass of beer, moved in front of the camera while shouting a string of obscenities directed towards Zahin.
‘Can you not see we’re talking?’ asked the women, referring to the interview with Sky News’ Midlands correspondent Shamaan Freeman-Powell.
The second woman then began a rant about religion, before adding: ‘That’s the issue we’re having with youse in our country, you’re raping our kids.’
The first woman then shouted the racist phrase ‘dirty monkeys’ followed by ‘save our kids’.
A shocked Zahin, who moved to the UK from Malawi aged six, could be heard asking the woman, ‘What you teaching them kids?’
Presenter Freeman-Powell attempted to de-escalate the situation by asking if he was okay.
He responded: ‘I’m used to this conflict.’
Following the confrontation, Zahin said he ‘loves’ Nuneaton, but thought he was being targeted because people assumed he was Muslim.
‘For them to accuse us of a crime, that’s unfair, that is unjust,’ he said.
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Nuneaton has seen a number of anti-immigration protests in recent weeks.
Asked about how he feels about the demonstrations, Zahin said he supported people’s right to protest in general.
‘We have a right to protest for whatever cause we want to: that’s the beauty of living in England,’ he said.
Speaking about the fault lines running through Nuneaton, Zahin said there was a need to build community and open dialogue.
‘Right now, I don’t think we’re a part of a community, it’s more like sides,’ he added.
‘But there has to be a solution. And I think that solution comes through dialogue, not ranting off, swearing at each other. I mean we are in 2025 now.’
Warwickshire Police have been contacted for comment.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘This government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in taxpayer-funded hotels waiting for their claims to be processed.
‘At their peak, less than two years ago, there were 400 asylum hotels in use at a cost of almost £9m a day.’We have taken urgent action to fix the system – more than doubling asylum decisions and cutting the backlog by 41%. The cost of asylum hotels was reduced by almost a billion pounds in 2024/25 compared to the previous year, and we have put in place the major reforms which will allow us to end the use of asylum hotels entirely by the end of this parliament.
‘In our first year in government, we also ensured the removal of 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK, including almost 5,200 foreign national offenders, a 14 per cent increase on the same period twelve months earlier.’
