UP to 20 Kosovar refugees have left their new home at Calderstones Hospital to live with friends and family already in this country.

And it has been revealed that another planeload of 160 refugees from the troubled Balkan province is due to arrive at the Whalley site tomorrow afternoon.

Five coachloads of Kosovar Albanians arrived at the former mental hospital in the early hours of Tuesday.

The 162 refugees included children and a pregnant woman.

The Kosovo Village has its own cooking facilities, school, nursery, health clinic and mobile dentist.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said the refugees spent a day with staff from the Benefits Agency and receiving health screenings. About 15 or 20 have already left.

A Home Office spokesman said the refugees were free to go where they pleased and not obliged to notify the authorities in advance of their whereabouts. However, checks could be kept on them through the tax and benefits system.

Those Kosovars going to stay with friends and family with existing refugee status or citizenship would automatically get the benefit of refugee status and be allowed to stay in Britain indefinitely.

Others had special leave to stay in Britain for 12 months and after that would have to apply for an extension or apply for refugee status or asylum.

He said no-one would be made to return to Kosovo unless their safety could be guaranteed.

The spokeswoman added that all the Kosovar refugees had expressed the desire to return home on their arrival in the UK.

The refugees have been contacting relatives in England on special phonelines and were said to be delighted when the Lancashire Evening Telegraph greeted their arrival by sending them 160 copies of the paper with the front page headline Welcome to Lancashire in Albanian.

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