Gateway Protection Programme

The Gateway Protection Programme is a new resettlement scheme for refugees, established in 2002 by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).  Its chief aim is to find homes in other countries for people who have been exiled in refugee camps for many years.
 
They are usually refugees whose lives are exceptionally at risk.  The threat to their lives is so great that it is not possible for them to remain in their camp and the country where they have sought refuge.  Nor is it safe for them to return to their home country. 

Resettlement in a third country is often their only hope.  Some of them have survived torture, rape or other maltreatment.  The Gateway Protection Programme is a lifeline for these especially vulnerable people.   

Bolton and Bury, along with Sheffield, were pioneers in the UK in agreeing to resettle Gateway refugees.

Bolton’s first Gateway refugees - from Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - arrived here in late 2004.  The Liberian families had fled two devastating civil wars in which 200,000 died and more than a million were driven into exile.  For many years, they had endured desperate conditions in refugee camps.  The Congolese refugees, too, had fled civil war - a conflict in which three million people perished.

A year later, a second group of Gateway families travelled to Bolton – refugees from a brutal civil war in Sudan.  Up to being re-homed in Bolton they had been surviving in mud huts for many years in refugee camps in neighbouring Uganda.

This exhibition reflects the experiences of this Sudanese community.  Drawing on interviews with group-members, it describes how they were forced to flee their homes, their lives in the refugee camps, and their feelings about their first year in Bolton.

Bolton is well known for its friendly people and welcoming attitude.  This exhibition reflects aspects of life that most of us will fortunately never have to experience, but it’s important that we show this kind of work so that we can understand these issues and be inspired to help make things better. Hopefully it will be a fitting tribute to the courage of these people and also to the people of Bolton, who have shown the way in offering them a better life.

Project Director, Stephen Fielding, conducted the interviews, took the photographs and designed the exhibition.

I hope the exhibition will open people’s eyes to the reality of refugees’ lives.  Among the photographs of smiling faces, there are stories of war, famine, torture and the murder of loved ones.  This exhibition is a small tribute to what these Sudanese refugees have endured and the resilience they’ve shown in surviving.  These are admirable human beings, and I hope that visitors to the exhibition will come away with a realisation of that.

For more information about the exhibition contact

Stephen Fielding, Project Director

Telephone: 01204 302300 

Email: sbfielding319@aol.com

An exhibition commissioned by Community Housing Services