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It was a shocking moment that encapsulated the rising tension across Britain amid the country’s small boat crisis.
A Muslim businessman was being interviewed on Sky News about the troubles in Nuneaton, when a white woman carrying a pint of lager staggered across the street, her children in tow, and screamed vile abuse at him.
‘Dirty monkey,’ she yelled at him before her female friend joined in, telling the interviewee to ‘go back to his own country’ – oblivious to the fact that the Midlands town has been his home for more than 26 years.
In that moment, caught on Sky’s cameras, the two women provided a grim and uncomfortable insight into the tension that is gripping towns and cities across the UK where those arriving on small boats are being accommodated – at the tax payers’ expense.
And nowhere is that rising tension more evident than in the market town of Nuneaton where this shameful clash took place – and where the numbers of temporarily housed asylum seekers has risen steeply in a short amount of time.
A few years ago there were just a handful of asylum seekers but that number has shot up to 247 people in this once quiet small corner of Warwickshire – the county that gave the world Shakespeare.
Unlike other towns where small boat migrants are put up in hotels, here in Nuneaton they live in residential homes or Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO’s), side by side with the established community.
People in the town were already on edge over the arrival of so many illegal migrants in the last few years.
But what really intensified the situation was the news that a local 12-year-old girl had been raped in July – and two Afghan asylum seekers were charged over the attack.
Afghan asylum seeker Ahmad Mulakhil – who reportedly entered Britain by crossing the Channel – is charged with raping the schoolgirl on one of Nuneaton’s suburban roads.
And Mohammad Kabir, also an Afghan asylum seeker, has been charged with aiding and abetting rape, strangulation and kidnap.
So worried were Warwickshire Police chiefs about the possibility of the case provoking violent disorder that they reportedly advised local councillors and officials not to reveal that the rape suspects were asylum seekers for fear of ‘inflaming community tensions’.
Hundreds of residents have since marched on Nuneaton Town Hall, many clutching St George and Union flags, and others holding aloft placards preaching safety for ‘our girls’.
All this has left one asylum seeker begging to be sent back to his native Somalia because it is ‘not safe’ for him to remain in the Midlands town.
Yusuf came to the UK from Somalia to claim asylum two decades ago, but recently had his right to work stripped following a ‘serious’ assault. The 50-year-old 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.
In Nuneaton so far there has been none of the violence which erupted outside migrant hotels in Epping in Essex and London’s Canary Wharf – but the town clearly remains a hotbed of mistrust – emphasised by the scowling alcohol-soaked yobs who gatecrashed 32-year-old Zahin Gelu’s interview with Sky News.
Mr Gelu, a British Asian, who was born in Lilongwe in Malawi but has lived in Nuneaton since he was six years old, was sitting outside a café in the town centre with his two sisters two weeks ago.
Sky News were reporting on the tensions in the local community and Mr Gelu, who owns local restaurant Dessertz2Go, was approached to give his views.
No sooner had he given his name, two women – one clutching a pint of lager taken from a local pub – stormed into shot surrounded by their young children.
In the clip – which was only broadcast a few days ago but has since gone viral online – the women scream obscenities at him, one shouts the phrase ‘dirty monkey’ before the other screams: ‘That’s the issue we’re having with youse (sic) in our country, you’re raping our kids.’
The Daily Mail has learned that the woman holding the glass of beer is 29-year-old mother-of-three Amy Palmer.
Mr Gelu said that he forgave Ms Palmer for her outburst and is not pressing charges but police are investigating the matter regardless.
Two women aged 30 and 43 have been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. The older woman was also held on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault.
He said he and his sisters continued to be harassed by the two women for ten minutes.
Mr Gelu said: ‘I was called a p***, I was accused of raping children and told to go back to my country. But this is my country.
‘I’ve been here for the last 26 years, I went to primary and secondary school in Nuneaton and went to university in Manchester. I’ve built a business here, I employ people and pay taxes.
‘But because of the colour of my skin and the fact that I’m a British Asian, these women assumed I was an asylum seeker.
‘I’d just about said my name on camera when they came over shouting insults.
‘There’s no justification for it but she was clearly projecting her problems on to me. She had small children with her and that was what upset me most because what sort of example does that set?
‘I’ve had this sort of behaviour thrown at me all my life and it’s becoming a serious problem again with the issue of asylum seekers becoming such a major topic of conversation.
‘But I want peace, we need to all calm down and talk about stuff and be more dignified in the way we treat each other.’
The Daily Mail tracked down Ms Palmer after visiting friends of hers who lived in a block of flats about two miles west of the town centre.
Stickers proclaiming ‘Stop the Boats’ were plastered over the ground-floor flat’s front door.
Speaking to us from her friend’s phone, Ms Palmer denied being the person in the Sky News video clip and said it was someone else who looked like her.
However, another close friend of hers, a man who said he was of Indian heritage and gave his name as Ash later admitted: ‘That is Amy in the clip, she shouldn’t have said what she said…but she’s not racist. She is just angry over what’s happened to her town.’
Much of the fury that has beset the town is due to accusations that the police has sought to cover up the alleged rape of the 12-year-old girl by Mulakhil and Kabir.
The pair pleaded not guilty when they appeared at Warwick Crown Court last Thursday. They were remanded in custody and are due to face trial on January 26, 2026.
Reform UK’s George Finch, the leader of the county council and the party’s youngest councillor, said in a letter to the force’s chief constable: ‘The continued cover-up of the true nature of Ahmad Mulakhil’s immigration status risks public disorder breaking out on the streets of Warwickshire.
‘The same detail has been covered up today concerning Mohammad Kabir. I am disgusted that one year on from the social unrest that we saw in parts of the UK in 2024, the Home Office and police have clearly not learnt any lessons.
‘I strongly believe that the only risk to public order from this case in Warwickshire comes from the cover-up.’
Meanwhile the Tories have warned the grooming gang scandal will repeat itself if police do not share the immigration status or ethnicity of dangerous suspects.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, issued the warning after police were accused of ‘covering up’ the background of the asylum seekers arrested on suspicion of the girl’s rape.
Mr Philp told the Daily Mail: ‘The police must be open about who is committing these alleged offences, and not try to hide it.
‘Otherwise, we risk a repeat of the rape gang scandal where horrendous crimes were covered up because of the identity of the perpetrators.
‘I also call on the Government to ensure that the immigration status and nationality of all offenders is published for each crime, and as quarterly totals. The public rightly expect complete honesty.’
It follows protests outside a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex, after it emerged an asylum seeker staying there had been charged with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.
One man, from Warwickshire, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘They’re hushing it up because they don’t want an Epping situation on their hands.’
In a statement, the force said that once someone is charged with an offence, they follow national guidance, which ‘does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status’.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, which controls the council, said: ‘I am afraid police and elected officials are acting against the British people.’
In his letter, which was also sent to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, Mr Finch claimed the council’s chief executive told him Kabir was an asylum seeker. He stated: ‘Residents can see they have not been told the full story. If these accusations turn out to be true, it indicates that organised crime centring on the abuse of young girls is present in Warwickshire. This is unacceptable.’
He also called for all asylum seekers living in HMOs in the county to be rehoused.
Mr Finch added: ‘Our community has had enough of the Home Office breaking planning regulations to turn sections of local communities into unrecognisable, ghetto-like areas.
‘Having my ear to the ground locally, it is clear that there is much appetite for protests to take place across the county.
‘Let me be clear, I do not want to see protests taking place outside migrant hotels and HMOs in Warwickshire. Nor do I want to see any form of violent disorder.’
