Residents are fighting plans to move 83 asylum seekers into newbuild homes in a development dubbed ‘Migrant Street.’

They say they were told the new development would be affordable housing.  But they have since learned that around 21 homes out of 25 newbuilds have been earmarked for asylum seekers.

One migrant family has already moved in to the estate – but said they wished to leave because the development was too ‘remote’ and they had faced hostility from locals.

Residents in the Shropshire hamlet of Stoke Heath expect more asylum seekers will arrive in the coming days and weeks.

Emma O’Sullivan, a mother-of-three, said residents had been ‘caught off guard’ by last week’s sudden announcement.

She said: ‘We were told that the new development would be social houses which was fine but no one moved in for a year.

‘Now we’re told they will be used for asylum seekers and they’re not part of the social housing at all.

‘We feel like we’ve been lied to.’

She added: ‘I’ve got three teenage girls and we’re really worried. It’s not who they are, it’s how many there are.’

Another local said: ‘It’s bang out of order and people now call it “Migrant Street”, which will be pretty accurate. 

‘It doesn’t feel fair that these people will be living in shiny new homes free of charge, which hard-working local folk could never afford.’

News that the site is being used to house asylum seekers comes as the Government pushes ahead with plans to phase out migrant hotels by 2029 and relocate people into ‘properties and ex-military sites’. 

It is using private company Serco to buy small properties, such as houses and flats, to be used as alternative accommodation.

Serco has said up to 83 asylum seekers will be housed on the development – in what was a field at the end of a street of 1960s homes called Dutton Close. 

The new houses were built a year ago and stood empty until the first asylum seekers were moved in a fortnight ago. 

Muhammad Nadeem, his wife Shamaila, were moved to the site from Stockport, 60 miles away with their four children.

The family fled their native Pakistan two years ago after fearing for their safety and wanting to make a better life for themselves in the UK.

Mr Nadeem obtained a work visa and found work as an Uber driver in Stockport, but when the visa ran out they applied for asylum and were initially moved from their home to a hotel while their application was processed.

They are now living in a barely furnished four-bedroom house on the development in Stoke Heath, but have been targeted by thugs and want to leave.

Mr Nadeem, 40, 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 came 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 security guards patrol the neighbourhood, and they have been given an alarm.

Mr Nadeem said house is four miles from the nearest supermarket and a return taxi trip to buy provisions would cost £20.

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

‘This is no good. It’s too rural. I have diabetes and back pain. My GP is four miles away.

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

But Jackie Jefferies, 62, has lived in Stoke Heath for more than three decades. She said: ‘My daughter has come back home and she can’t get any housing here but if you’re an asylum seeker then you can move right in.

‘We don’t want to hurt anyone or be a mob, we just want our points to be heard.’

Another local, who gave her name as Rachel, said: ‘People are concerned because no one has been told what’s going to happen, which creates a vacuum of fear.’

The area’s Tory MP Mark Pritchard raised the situation in parliament earlier this month.

He has said: ‘Stoke Heath is an isolated rural location with very few public services.

‘This is the wrong location and at the wrong scale. I will fight these ill-conceived plans all the way.’

Shropshire Council has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to ‘raise our strong concerns about this location and are awaiting a response before considering any further action’.

Police and Crime Commissioner of West Mercia John-Paul Campion called the plan ‘wholly inappropriate’.

In an open letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Campion pointed out that the nearest bus stop was a 30-minute walk away.

The Government insists the move is part of a wider strategy to cut costs and reduce hotel use.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘New homes should never house asylum seekers.

‘Earlier this year, the Home Secretary introduced robust processes to ensure new-build sites like Stoke Heath can never be considered again.’

Serco said it works under the Home Office, which decides where people are placed and ‘determines how many people are to be accommodated in each local authority area’.