Afghan asylum scheme forces veteran and his family out of accommodation as they tell GB News ‘our mental health is in tatters’

Mrs Berg's husband Gavin served for 24 years in the Armed Forces, serving in tours of Iran, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

After more than 20 years of service, Mr Berg retired, only to be served an eviction notice just four days later.

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Discussing their situation to GB News, Mrs Berg explained that the standard eviction notice is 93 days once you leave the Armed Forces, but their family were told to vacate four days after Mr Berg's official retirement date despite living there since 2021.

Mrs Berg said: "My husband put in for retirement last year, so his official date was July 10. In the lead up to that, we had letters from housing saying that notice to vacate would be July 14, which is literally four days after my husband retired.

"You should have 93 days after you leave the army in order to find someone else to stay, which we haven't been given. We asked for the letter to say when we actually had to end the tenancy agreement here, and they told us again that it was July 14, and we had already reached the 93 day mark."

Highlighting her family situation, Mrs Berg revealed that alongside her own health issues with chronic lung disease, asthma and arthritis, their two children are also neurodivergent with ADHD and autism. Mrs Berg also admitted that the stress of their situation has severely affected the mental health of the entire family.

Mrs Berg said: "It's hit us all very, very badly. Gavin's mental health has gone right through the roof. He was struggling as it was, because he had his three months leave beforehand, so he decided to take on a part time job just to increase his mental health, to put him in a better position.

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"He was struggling with the change and then to be hit with homelessness, it did hit us both bad. My mental health's deteriorated quite a fair bit since, and his mental health is not great. And for someone that's quite strong, he's having mental breakdowns. And you can see everything has just come away from his eyes, his eyes are empty now."

After unsuccessfully seeking out alternatives from North Yorkshire Council, the Berg family were forced to move to Aberdeenshire, which was the "only council that accepted them".

Mrs Berg stated: "The plan was to stay in Catterick for a couple of years to let my children finish school, but the council came back and said that we were well over the earnings and we couldn't rent a property from them. I tried quite a few different councils, and Aberdeenshire council was the only one that would accept us.

"We had to accept the first property that came to us because things were happening far too quick, and we're basically going to be out with nowhere to go. We then had a letter to say that housing had gone through to the courts, and we were now 'trespassing', and they were just waiting for the final eviction to come through. So we ended up having to accept a house that was as far north as we could."

Stressing that the family had "no choice" in the situation, Mrs Berg told GB News that they are now having to "start from scratch", which has significantly impacted her children's education.

Mrs Berg explained: "We're uprooting ourselves. Us and the children are having to change our doctors, we've have had to take my youngest out of school, and now we're fighting to try and find out where my son can go to school, because he needs a special school.

"It's not an ideal situation for us, but it was the only one that was open. So it's all going to be fresh, and we're basically gonna have to start from scratch just to get settled again."

During her travels to Aberdeenshire, Mrs Berg revealed that she spotted an Afghan family, who are to be rehomed in their property as part of the resettlement scheme, outside of her house whilst they were still living there. She told GB News: "When we were up in Scotland to visit the house, we've got cameras on the house here, and we actually had Afghans standing outside looking in to the house.

"And this has become a regular occurrence around this area, where they're kicking us out and putting Afghans into these houses."

Criticising the growing lack of support for British veterans, Mrs Berg expressed her frustration at her family having the "door shut on them" despite Mr Berg "giving up his family life" to "serve the Queen and now the King".

Mrs Berg stated: "We are very, very disappointed, because he's given his whole life and over 21 years marriage, we've hardly seen my husband and the kids haven't grown up with him around. So he's given up his family life.

"He's put himself at risk, and now there's nothing there for him. It's a case of, he's done all this for the Queen now for the King, and they've basically shut the door on him. We we are a really big army community, one of the largest Garrisons, and we can't see any help at all."

Calling on the Government to deliver more support to veterans, Mrs Berg concluded: "They spend a lot of money on areas that aren't needed to be spent on and not actually helping the ones that were fighting the cause for them. They put all these calls for all these soldiers to fight for them, and they get no thanks in return, they don't get looked after.

"The army says it's all about family, it's not. I've noticed the changes through the years. I've been with my husband for 21 years within his army life, and there has been a massive change, and it's got a lot worse over the years, there's just nothing out there at all. They need to start looking after the people that were there for them, the ones that gave up their lives."

GB News has contacted Pinnacle Group, Defence Infrastructure Organisation and North Yorkshire Council for comment.