Afghans leave MoD base amid calls for army return

Hundreds of people were housed at Nesscliffe under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy

The last Afghans housed at a military base have been rehomed, two years after the first arrivals there.

Nesscliffe army training base in Shropshire was part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, which housed thousands of people who worked with UK forces in their homeland before the western withdrawal in 2021.

The base was announced as part of the scheme in November 2023, and more than 1,500 workers and family members passed through before being found permanent homes.

Local councillor Ed Potter said people in the area wanted the base returned to military use.

He told BBC Radio Shropshire the site was more suited to army training than housing young families.

"Even the new accommodation which I saw was very basic with two sets of bunk beds and a plug socket," he said.

Health and education services were provided on the base, including through a partnership led by the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital near Oswestry.

Nurse leader Rebecca Warren said: "We had no idea then that it would run for nearly two years... but throughout all that what we saw was fantastic team spirit and seamless collaboration between the armed forces and all the health organisations here in Shropshire."

Medical services for new arrivals were managed by a team at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital

None of those housed at Nesscliffe were asylum seekers, having already been granted permission to be in the UK because of their roles alongside British forces.

Potter, who represents the area around the base on Shropshire Council, paid tribute to the community for accepting the arrivals after what he called their "shock" arrival.

"We had large groups of men walking around the community... people on their own did feel a little uncomfortable at times."

But he said there had been an extensive programme of education on the camp to help new arrivals fit in and follow British laws and customs around things like road safety and litter.

Ed Potter said the base was better suited to military use

The councillor said the whole scheme had been managed by central government with minimal involvement of local authorities, leaving some people initially feeling they had been left in the dark.

"We did eventually secure a public meeting and briefing from the MoD (Ministry of Defence) in August last year which really settled everyone down quite nicely," he said, adding that the time before that had been a "slog".

Responding to government plans to house asylum seekers at military bases in future, Potter said he had worked with Shrewsbury Labour MP Julia Buckley to seek assurances Nesscliffe would be returned to military use.

He said it had an important use as a landing site for training flights from RAF Shawbury, and that people living nearby "particularly want" it to revert to its former use "now it has served its purpose".