Not much happens in Nuneaton. The Warwickshire town, located close to the traditional centre of England, is a sleepy sort of place. Since the mines around it were closed, the area’s economy has been on a slow decline. On Sunday afternoon, its streets were mostly deserted.
Now, however, the town may become the latest flashpoint in the anti-migrant protests sweeping Britain. Last week, Ahmad Mulakhil, an Afghan asylum seeker, was charged with raping a 12-year-old girl on one of its suburban roads. Mohammad Kabir, also an Afghan asylum seeker, has been charged with aiding and abetting rape, strangulation and kidnap. Both men had entered Britain by crossing the Channel.
According to sources who spoke to the Mail on Sunday, local authorities fear that violent disorder might follow. Warwickshire Police, they claim, advised local councillors and officials not to reveal that the rape suspects were asylum seekers for fear of “inflaming community tensions”. “They’re hushing it up because they don’t want an Epping situation on their hands,” one local is reported to have said. A protest has already been planned for next Saturday.
Heightening the stakes is the fact that Nuneaton’s asylum seekers — including Mulakhil and Kabir until their arrests — are not housed in hotels but HMOs in residential areas. While the former have provided a focal point for demonstrations, they are also easily defended by lines of riot police. When spread out in residential streets, it is harder for the state to control or to protect small boat migrants.
Steven Elliot has lived on Cheverel Street, where the rape is alleged to have been committed, for the past 40 years. Taking a break from pulling up weeds from the curb outside his home, he pointed down the road to show me the house a few doors away that is set to become another HMO, and then the other properties further away that have already been converted.
Thanks to the transient population moving in, he now feels that the area is becoming increasingly unsafe. Several months ago, eight young men were moved into the compact terraced house next to his. “I’m not happy,” he said. “I have a 12-year-old granddaughter myself.”
His wife, Nuala, told me she has looked inside the nearby house that is being converted and thinks it is a bodge job thrown together by a rogue landlord. “Living in between two [HMOs] is not fair. A lot of strange ones are about. I think there are unofficial, illegal ones as well.”
Following the alleged rape, she feels that anxiety is rising among the area’s settled population. “Tensions were uneasy for a while, but now they’re through the roof,” she said. “We’re only at the first stages. It was a lovely quiet area before.” At one point, Nuala considered putting up a sign that simply read: “No.” The Elliots also said, however, that they had not experienced any trouble from their new neighbours. We keep ourselves to ourselves, Steven added.
The decision to ramp up the use of HMOs to house asylum seekers was taken by Labour after entering office last year. Mass accommodation sites in former military barracks and on the Bibby Stockholm barge had proven expensive and inhumane. In what was dubbed “Operation Scatter” the government planned to distribute migrants more evenly across Britain. Speaking last June, Angela Rayner said every borough had “an obligation to take their fair share”.
Alongside former care homes and student accommodation, HMOs, or houses in multiple occupation, provide a cheap solution. Typically converted from what was previously a single-family dwelling, they allow several people who do not know each other to live in separate bedrooms but with a shared bathroom, kitchen and living space. While this can provide a convenient setup for students and young professionals, they are also used to house those freshly released from prison and drug addicts. For many people living in areas like Cheverel Street they herald the imposition of disorder and the disruption of a tight-knit community.
With more than 25,000 migrants having crossed the Channel via small boat in 2025 so far, the state has rushed to keep up with demand. Earlier this year, Serco — which houses asylum seekers in the North West, the Midlands and the east of England — invited landlords to an event at a hotel in the Malvern Hills. The firm was looking, it said, for properties that could be leased for five years. “We are confident that our lease provision offers an attractive and competitive proposition within the industry,” the invitation added. On its website, Serco claims that it currently houses 30,000 asylum seekers in an “ever growing” portfolio of more than 7,000 properties. (Serco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
In Nuneaton, both Mulakhil and Kabir were housed in HMOs leased by the company. It was a scenario those living on Cheverel Street had resisted. One British-Asian man living on the road, who declined to give his name, told me dozens of local residents had written to Nuneaton and Bedworth District Council to oppose the introduction of eight-bed HMOs to the area. While a property can typically be converted into a six-bed HMO without planning permission, those housing more people must be signed off by the local authority.
“The council doesn’t give a shit monkey,” he said. He worried for his twin daughters, one of whom now lives next door to an HMO with the other just meters away. The asylum seekers he had seen seemed okay, though. “They have a lovely life,” he laughed. “The Government pays for everything.” For him, the imposition of migrants upon his community was just the latest sign of the area’s decline. Leading me around the corner, he pointed out a fly-tipped mattress and sofa. The council will come and take away rubbish, he said, but they could not seem to stop people from dumping more in its place.
Though he wished the HMOs would leave, he added, he was now also worried about demonstrators travelling to Nuneaton because of the alleged assault. “People from outside will come in and see me and see my daughters with dark skin,” he said. “Protesters don’t care that we contribute to society — my daughter is a nurse, she looks after everyone, whether they’re white, brown, black or green. White extremists won’t see that and put us all in the same barrel.”
Clare Golby, a Conservative former deputy leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council who herself lives close to Cheverel Street, said she was sure locals would turn out to protest next weekend. It worries her, however, that her town will become a magnet for trouble makers on both sides of the debate.
In office, Golby claimed, she had always tried to prevent asylum seekers from being housed in the area. “The fact is Serco can and does do exactly what they want. They could come in and rent or buy up entire streets if they choose to and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. I would not facilitate them in this. My argument was always that I had families in temporary accommodation and 3,000 people on a housing waiting list and I refused to prioritise non-UK nationals beyond that.”
“I’ve got a feeling that this country will go ballistic.”
Many residents of Nuneaton are furious at the degradation of their community, she added. “Our rental market is out of control, Serco are certainly having an impact on this by hoovering up tenancies, leading to more homelessness and extra financial pressure on local councils, who then pass this on to the council tax payer.”
Inside the Coton Sports and Social Club at the end of Cheverel Street, several punters had not yet heard about the alleged rape. They were united in their disdain for the Government, however. Duncan Clark, standing at the bar in a purple polo shirt, insisted that the prime minister had been soft on crimes committed by Muslims. “Starmer and Reeves are the biggest wankers ever to run this country,” he said with a grin.
His friend, wearing a pink polo shirt, agreed. “This fucking country is on it’s arse,” he said. “If the Government was run properly people like that wouldn’t be here. If I had my way we’d hang, draw and quarter them. They’ll get a slap on the wrist, six months.” Asked if he would attend the protest, Clark said he was too old. “But,” he added: “I’ve got a feeling that this country will go ballistic.”
When I knocked at the door of one of the HMOs on Cheverel Street, one asylum seeker from Guinea and another from Kuwait answered. Unable to speak English, they knocked in turn for Ali, an Iranian, who they hoped might be able to translate for them. After he emerged blinking and groggy from his bedroom, all three said they had crossed the Channel on small boats in the last few months.
The young men were polite, and seemingly eager to chat to a visitor, even if our conversation was stilted and conducted entirely through Google Translate. They had not heard that anyone had allegedly been raped on their street, they said. They liked the HMO, though, and thought Nuneaton seemed nice. They were glad to be in England. Had they had issues with their neighbours? No, they agreed. There had been no issues at all.
