“People are scared to come here,” says Romanian national Marius Boros, who moved to the UK 13 years ago and now runs a grocery shop on Dudley High Street.
There are “a lot of fights, knives, guns” outside, he says.
Mini-marts selling cut-price, illegal goods – including drugs – are destroying his business, says Boros. “I work really hard, everything I had, I invested here… I’m very close to losing everything.”
Meanwhile, hair salon owner Diane Shawe believes local criminals are trying to push her out. Her shop windows have been smashed four times, she says, each time in the middle of the night.
CCTV footage showed how men in hoodies threw bricks at her shop windows in the early hours, shortly after the glass had been replaced.
“They want the shop. They’re going to make it expensive for me until they get their own way,” says Shawe, whose customers include people with cancer and alopecia
After one of the attacks, she explains, two men called into the shop and tried to intimidate her, saying they wanted the premises to set up a barber shop.
“One guy asked me, am I ready to sell now?”