Asylum seeker family say they 'hate' living in their £250,000 newbuild home in Britain's Migrant Street and want to move out

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An asylum-seeking family who moved into a £250,000 newbuild home on a road dubbed ‘Migrant Street’ say they hate living there and want to leave.

Muhammad Nadeem, his wife Shamaila and their four children left their homeland two years ago before settling in the UK.

They rented a house in Stockport in Greater Manchester, where Muhammad qualified for a work visa and got a job as an Uber driver.

They applied for asylum after the visa expired, but had to leave their home and move into a hotel while their application was processed.

Two weeks ago the couple took their three daughters and young son 60 miles away to a sparsely furnished four-bedroom house in the Shropshire village of Stoke Heath.

Some 21 newbuild homes on their road – originally built for social housing – have been set aside for an estimated 83 asylum seekers to live in.

It comes as the Government pushes ahead with plans to phase out migrant hotels by 2029 and relocate people into ‘properties and ex-military sites’.

Residents of Stoke Heath have told of feeling outraged at the prospect of their rural village being ‘over-run’ with migrants.

Muhammad Nadeem, his wife Shamaila and their four children moved to a sparsely furnished four-bedroom house in the Shropshire village of Stoke Heath

Muhammad Nadeem, his wife Shamaila and their four children moved to a sparsely furnished four-bedroom house in the Shropshire village of Stoke Heath

Some 21 newbuild homes on the road - originally built for social housing - have been set aside for an estimated 83 asylum seekers to live in

Some 21 newbuild homes on the road – originally built for social housing – have been set aside for an estimated 83 asylum seekers to live in

Mr Nadeem, 40, also says he is desperate to move, saying his family have already been targeted by thugs – while describing how the village’s remote location has left them feeling isolated.

He said: ‘The trouble started the day after we moved in. My wife and our kids were outside the house when three people came towards us. We quickly went inside and I locked the door.

‘Hours later two people come to the house. One was wearing a mask and they knocked on my door.

‘I answered it and they were filming me on a phone. I told them to go away. They walked away and they started shouting what sounded like abuse.’

The family told private security firm Serco about the incidents and now guards patrol the neighbourhood around the clock.

Mr Nadeem said he has emailed the Home Office, begging to be moved back to Stockport where the family have friends and relatives.

He said: ‘I am diabetic, I don’t have a GP here and the shops are miles away.

‘If my bread goes out of date, what do I do? It’s a £10 taxi ride to Asda and £10 back. If I need only bread, it will cost me more than £20.

‘What do I do? The Home Office gives us £295 a week for six members. Most of our money goes on taxis.

‘This is no good for us this place. It’s too rural. I have diabetes and back pain.

‘We now have security guards outside but we don’t feel safe. We don’t want to be here. It is not suitable for us – it is too far for jobs, shops and schools.

‘We’ve been here 15 days and we stay inside most of the time.

Muhammad Nadeem and his wife Shamaila - pictured from behind because they were too frightened to be identified - in the garden of their home

Muhammad Nadeem and his wife Shamaila – pictured from behind because they were too frightened to be identified – in the garden of their home

The kitchen inside Mr and Mrs Nadeem's newbuild home in Stoke Heath, Shropshire

The kitchen inside Mr and Mrs Nadeem’s newbuild home in Stoke Heath, Shropshire

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More than 80 asylum seekers set to move into £250,000 newbuild village homes – to fury of residents

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‘My kids say, “Father, can we go outside and play?”, but I don’t let them in case they are abused or threatened.

‘We left Pakistan because of threats to our family and now we have it here.

‘We can’t go to the park, we’re scared. The mobile signal is no good so the police gave me an alarm.

‘We pull the strap if there are any problems and the police or security come. They gave my daughter a small one.

‘I’m too scared for anyone to see my face. My son loves football but he can’t play with them.’

Mr Nadeem says he now sleeps in the front room to protect his family from potential attackers, adding: ‘I’m sleeping most of the time here, by the front window. 

‘But I’m not sleeping – most of the time I’m looking left, right, left, right.’

Despite struggling to settle in the village, Mr Nadeem insisted he was determined not to return to Pakistan.

He said: ‘We left Pakistan because of family problems. Some people have been tortured.

‘Pakistan is not safe – some people try to blackmail me. We want to stay in the UK where we were building a life and paying our way.

‘We don’t want to be stuck in a new house which could be a home for a local family from the village. We just want to get on with our lives like everybody else.’

Mother-of-four Shamaila said she feared for her children’s safety if they did not leave Stoke Heath, adding: ‘We are scared to stay in this house. We hate it here.

‘My children fear bad people will come to our door like they did on our first night.

‘We do not want to live where people do this. Most of the neighbours are nice and smile at us but there are some who are not.

‘In Stockport my husband worked, my children had friends and we had family. Here we have nothing and we dare not leave the house.’

Newbuild homes ‘should never house asylum seekers’, the Home Office has said.

The plans for Stoke Heath, first raised by Conservative MP Mark Pritchard in the House of Commons in June, have been met with strong opposition from residents who say the houses should be for locals.

A Home Office spokesperson said it had introduced ‘robust processes’ to ensure newbuild sites like Stoke Heath could ‘never be considered again’.

It is understood the Shropshire development pre-dates a new process introduced by the Home Secretary which guides against housing asylum seekers in newbuild properties feared to potentially increase social tensions.

Residents recently learned that 21 homes in the Stoke Heath development have been acquired by outsourcing company Serco for asylum seekers.

Labour has pledged to stop using asylum hotels by the next election, moving towards housing asylum seekers in the community as well as in former military barracks.

Earlier this week, the Home Office announced that asylum seekers would be made to pay up to £10,000 towards the cost of their accommodation and support once they start earning.

It is one of a number of policies aimed at tackling the migrant crisis introduced in the Immigration and Asylum Bill.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also said asylum seekers would not be housed in modern developments in the future.




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