The Romanian ambassador to the UK has blamed Ukip's anti-immigration campaign for racist attacks on people from his country.
Ion Jinga launched a furious attack on Nigel Farage's party and accused the media of spreading "scaremongering and distorted information'.
Ukip has been at the forefront of protests at the lifting of visa restrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian nationals in January, using it in its campaigns including during Eastleigh by-election, where it came second.
Jinga said nobody knew how many Romanians would come here
Last week Farage used his conference speech to warn of a "Romanian crime wave".
And Labour attacked the government's attempts to talk tough on immigration, accusing ministers of National Front-style tactics with its 'go home' van campaign.
"I had never faced racism in this country until 2013," Jinga wrote in the Telegraph.
"Now, almost on a daily basis I am asked where I am originally from, and I have to face a racist attitude following my answer."
The ambassador said he had expressed concern during the Eastleigh campaign about "xenophobic comments" in the Ukip campaign.
"Unfortunately, I was right because soon after, in Brighton, two young Romanian workers were attacked only because they were speaking in a language identified by their aggressors as being 'East European'," he said.
Jinga listed some of the scare-stories spread about the visa changes, and said "nobody knows" how many Romanians will choose to come here in January.
He said Britons should be proud to have people wanting to live in the country and insisted Romanians would not be a burden on the welfare state.
Farage told The Telegraph: "There is an issue here but we are pretty careful about this."