The Gateway Protection Programme was a refugee resettlement scheme operated by the
Government of the United Kingdom
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...
in partnership with the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
(UNHCR) and co-funded by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU), offering a legal route for a quota of UNHCR-identified
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. s to be
resettled in the UK. Following a proposal by the British
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
,
David Blunkett
David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...
, in October 2001, the legal basis was established by the
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (c. 41) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 7 November 2002.
This Act created a number of changes to the law including:
British Nationals with no othe ...
and the programme itself launched in March 2004. The programme enjoyed broad support from the UK's main political parties.
The Gateway Protection Programme initially had a quota of 500 refugees per year, which was later increased to 750, but the actual number of refugees resettled in most years was fewer than the quota permitted.
Afghan
Afghan may refer to:
*Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia
*Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity
** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
,
Liberian,
Congolese,
Sudanese,
Burmese,
Ethiopian
Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...
,
Mauritanian,
Iraqi,
Bhutanese,
Eritrean,
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
and
Somali refugees were amongst those who were resettled under the programme. Refugees were resettled to locations in England and Scotland. Of the 18
local authorities
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
participating as resettlement locations by 2012, eight were in the
North West region of England and three in
Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York.
It is ...
. Evaluations of the programme have praised it as having a positive impact on the reception of refugees by local communities, but have also noted the difficulties these refugees have faced in securing employment.
In 2019, the British government announced plans to merge the Gateway Protection Programme with two of the UK's other resettlement schemes to create a new, single resettlement scheme. This was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. In March 2020, the Gateway Protection Programme closed after resettling 9,939 refugees since it began in 2004. The new, replacement
UK Resettlement Scheme
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
started in February 2021.
Details
The programme was the UK's "quota refugee"
resettlement scheme. Refugees designated as particularly vulnerable by the UNHCR were assessed by the
Home Office for eligibility under the
1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. If they met the eligibility criteria, they were brought to the UK and granted
indefinite leave to remain
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or permanent residency (PR) is an immigration status granted to a person who does not hold the right of abode in the United Kingdom (UK), but who has been admitted to the UK without any time limit on their stay a ...
.
The
International Organization for Migration
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
The IOM was ...
(IOM) assisted the process by facilitating pre-departure
medical screening
Screening, in medicine, is a strategy used to look for as-yet-unrecognised conditions or risk markers. This testing can be applied to individuals or to a whole population. The people tested may not exhibit any signs or symptoms of a disease, or t ...
,
counselling
Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes.
This is a list of co ...
, dossier preparation,
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
and immediate arrival assistance.
Once in the UK, refugees were entered into a 12-month support programme intended to aid their
integration
Integration may refer to:
Biology
*Multisensory integration
*Path integration
* Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome
*DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...
. The programme involved
local authorities
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
and
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s including the
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...
, the
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 19 ...
,
Migrant Helpline,
Refugee Action
Refugee Action is an independent national charity founded in 1981 that provides advice and support to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and campaigns for a fairer asylum system. It is governed by a board of trustees chaired by Penny Lawrence. ...
, the
Refugee Arrivals Project, the
Refugee Council
The Refugee Council is a UK based organisation which works with refugees and asylum seekers. The organisation provides support and advice to refugees and asylum seekers, as well as support for other refugee and asylum seeker organisations. The R ...
,
Scottish Refugee Council
The Scottish Refugee Council is a registered charity that provides advice and services to asylum seekers and refugees. The objective of the organisation is ‘building a better future with refugees in Scotland’.
The charity was formed in E ...
and
Refugee Support.
These organisations formed the Resettlement Inter-Agency Partnership at the planning stage of the programme, in order to pool their resources and form a partnership for the delivery of services to the resettled refugees.
The programme was distinct from, and in addition to, ordinary provisions for claiming
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
in the United Kingdom.
The Gateway Protection Programme was co-funded by the European Union, first through the
European Refugee Fund The European Refugee Fund (ERF) was a scheme designed to facilitate the sharing of the financial costs of the reception, integration and voluntary repatriation of refugees amongst European Union member states. All EU member states apart from Denma ...
and then through its successor, the
Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund
The European Commission's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (previously the Return Fund, the Refugee Fund, and the Integration Fund) is a funding programme managed by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs which promotes the e ...
(AMIF). Over the period 2009–14, the Home Office provided £29.97 million in funding and the EU £18.67 million. Anna Musgrave of the Refugee Council argued in 2014 that the programme "is rarely talked about and the Home Office, in the main, stay fairly quiet about it."
History
![Mae La refugee camp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Mae_La_refugee_camp.jpg)
The Gateway Protection Programme was not the first British refugee resettlement programme. Other, informal resettlement programmes have included the
Mandate Refugee Scheme, and the UK has also participated in the
Ten or More Plan. The former is for so-called "mandate" refugees who have been granted refugee status by UNHCR in third countries. To qualify for the scheme, refugees must have close ties to the UK and it must also be demonstrated that the UK is the most appropriate country for their resettlement.
The Ten or More Plan, established by UNHCR in 1973 and administered in the UK by the British Red Cross,
is for refugees requiring medical attention not available in their current location. During the 1990s, 2,620 refugees were settled in the UK through these two programmes. In 2003, the UK's Ten or More Plan had a resettlement goal of 10 people and the Mandate Refugee Scheme 300.
Refugees have also been resettled through specific programmes following emergencies,
including 42,000
Ugandan Asians
In early August 1972, the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. At the time of the expulsion, there were about 80,000 individuals of Indian descent in Ugand ...
expelled from
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
during 1972–74, 22,500
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
during 1979–92, over 2,500
Bosnians
Bosnians (Bosnian language: / ; / , / ) are people identified with the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina or with the region of Bosnia. As a common demonym, the term ''Bosnians'' refers to all inhabitants/citizens of the country, regardless ...
in the 1990s, and over 4,000
Kosovars in 1999.
A new resettlement programme was proposed by the British
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
,
David Blunkett
David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...
in October 2001, having been hinted at by the previous Home Secretary,
Jack Straw
John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...
, in a speech to the European Conference on Asylum in Lisbon in June 2000.
The legal basis for the programme's funding was established by Section 59 of the
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (c. 41) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 7 November 2002.
This Act created a number of changes to the law including:
British Nationals with no othe ...
. This act was passed by the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
by 362 votes to 74 in June 2002 and by the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
– at the ninth attempt, following concern about the introduction of measures allowing for the
detention of asylum seekers in rural areas) – in November 2002.
The Gateway Protection Programme was subsequently established in March 2004, with the first refugees arriving in the UK on 19 March.
Initially, the programme quota was set at 500 per year. The British government had faced criticism from
academics
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
and practitioners over the small number of refugees it has resettled in comparison with other developed states. For example, in 2001 the countries with the largest quota schemes were the United States (80,000 refugees), Canada (11,000) and Australia (10,000). Initially, David Blunkett had intended to raise the quota to 1,000 in the second year of the programme's operation, but
local councils' reluctance to participate in the scheme meant that it was slow to take off.
It has been argued that their reluctance showed that hostile attitudes towards asylum seekers had carried over to affect the most genuinely needy refugees.
The quota remained at 500 per year until the 2008/09 financial year, when it was increased to 750 refugees per year. The number of refugees resettled under the scheme was small in comparison to the number of asylum seekers offered protection in the UK. For example, in 2013, 17,647 initial decisions on asylum claims were made by the Home Office, of which 5,734 (32.5 per cent) determined the applicant to be a refugee and granted them asylum, 53 (0.3 per cent) granted humanitarian protection and 540 (3.1 per cent) granted discretionary leave. 11,105 applications (62.9 per cent) were refused. Worldwide, there were 51.2 million forcibly displaced people at the end of 2013, 16.7 million of whom were refugees.
The programme was supported by the main British political parties at the national level since its inception, and there was also support from councillors from each of the main parties at the
local authority
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
level.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the scheme in 2014, refugee groups and others praised it as a successful programme and called for it to be expanded, particularly in light of the
Syrian refugee crisis.
[ In early 2014, ]Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
and the Refugee Council campaigned for the government to offer resettlement or humanitarian protection to Syrian refugees above and beyond the Gateway quota of 750 per year, "to ensure that resettlement opportunities continue to be available to refugees from the rest of the world". The anniversary of the programme was also the occasion of further criticism of the 750 quota, with some commentators arguing that this was mean-spirited and continued to compare unfavourably with the refugee resettlement programmes of states including the United States, Canada and Australia. Others, such as academic Jonathan Darling, were more skeptical about expanding the scheme, for fear that any such a move would be accompanied by greater restrictions on the ability of people to claim asylum in the UK. He argues that "we must be critical of any attempts to expand such a quota-based scheme at the expense of a more progressive asylum system". Furthermore, he argues that the "hospitality" of the scheme was highly conditional and can be viewed as a form of "compassionate repression", with the UNHCR, the Home Office and local authorities all involved in "sorting, decision, and consideration over which individuals are the 'exceptional cases'", to the exclusion of others.
In September 2015, in the context of the European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
, Labour Party leadership candidate Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department, Shadow Home Secretary since 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2015. She served in Gordon Brown's Brown ministry, Cabinet as ...
called for an increase in the number of refugees resettled in the UK to 10,000. The prime minister, David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, subsequently announced that the UK would resettle 20,000 refugees from camps in countries bordering Syria over the period to 2020 under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, which was established in early 2014 and was distinct from, but modelled on, the Gateway Protection Programme.
On 17 June 2019, the British Home Secretary, Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
, announced that a new resettlement scheme would be introduced from 2020, bringing the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, the Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme and the Gateway Protection Programme into a single programme with an initial quota of 5,000 people. The government stated that "the new programme will be simpler to operate and provide greater consistency in the way that the UK government resettles refugees". The COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
delayed the launch of the new resettlement scheme, with the individual schemes it was intended to replace being placed on hold in March 2020 and limited resettlement under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme only resuming in late 2020. A January 2021 parliamentary briefing explained that since the pandemic, "there has been uncertainty over the Government's plans to launch the K Resettlement Scheme and it is unclear whether the previous ambition to resettle 5,000 refugees in the first year of operation still stands". Government ministers confirmed that they still intended to launch a new programme, however. The new UK Resettlement Scheme started in February 2021.
Refugees resettled
The number of refugees resettled under the programme was below the quota in every year except for 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017. Refugees resettled included Liberians from Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
, Demographics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese (DRC) from Uganda and Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
, Sudanese from Uganda, Burmese (including Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
, Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* An ...
, Pa'O and Rohingya
The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...
people) from Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
, Ethiopians
Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...
from Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, and Mauritanians
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Mauritania ( ar, التركيبة السكانية في موريتانيا), including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, re ...
from Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
. Provision was made for 1,000 Iraqi refugees
Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout the past 30 years, there have been a growing number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking recently with the latest Iraq ...
to be resettled in the UK between 1 April 2008 and the end of March 2010. In 2008, 236 Iraqis were resettled and as of 18 May, a further 212 had been resettled in 2009. However, in May 2009 the programme was shut down for those Iraqis resettling due to having worked in support of British occupying forces and therefore at risk for reprisals. This decision was criticised as premature and "mean-spirited" by some members of Parliament. Nonetheless, other Iraqis continued to be resettled under the Gateway Protection Programme and between 2004 and 2017, a total of 1,640 Iraqis were resettled as part of the programme.[ Other nationalities of refugees resettled under the scheme included Bhutanese, ]Eritreans
Eritreans are the native inhabitants of Eritrea, as well as the global diaspora of Eritrea. Eritreans constitute several component ethnic groups, some of which are related to ethnic groups that make up the Ethiopian people in neighboring Ethiop ...
, Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
, Sierra Leoneans
The demographics of Sierra Leone are made up of an indigenous population from 18 ethnic groups. The Temne people, Temne in the north and the Mende in the south are the largest. About 60,000 are Krio, the descendants of freed slaves who returned ...
and Somalis
The Somalis ( so, Soomaalida 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒆𐒖, ar, صوماليون) are an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic Somali language is the shared ...
.
Resettlement locations
In March 2009, out of the 434 local authorities in the UK, 15 were participating in the programme. By 2012, a total of 18 local authorities had participated. In a review of the scheme, academics Duncan Sim and Kait Laughlin noted that "it is clear that, as with asylum seekers dispersed by the UK Borders Agency under Home Office dispersal policy, most refugees have been resettled away from London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and south east England, a policy which may lead to separation of extended families". Of the 18 local authorities, eight were in North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
and three in Yorkshire and the Humber.
The first refugees resettled under the programme were housed in Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, which was the first city to join the scheme and which had branded itself the UK's first 'City of Sanctuary'. Others were housed in cities and towns including Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
, Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
, Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...
, Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...
, Hull, Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
, Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...
, Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, and the Manchester area including Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
, Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...
, Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
, Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
and Tameside
The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Aud ...
. Sheffield, Bolton and Hull received the largest numbers, accounting for just under half of all refugees resettled under the programme between 2004 and 2012. The large proportion of refugees who were resettled in North West England has been attributed partly to strong leadership on migration issues in Greater Manchester.
In 2007, North Lanarkshire Council
North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...
won the "Creating Integrated Communities" category in the UK Housing Awards for its involvement in the Gateway Protection Programme. Research with Congolese refugees settled with North Lanarkshire Council in Motherwell found that the majority wanted to stay in the town and that they viewed it positively both as a location in its own right, and in comparison with other resettlement locations.
In April 2007, Bolton Museum
Bolton Museum is a public museum and art gallery in the town of Bolton, England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The museum is housed within the grade II listed Le Mans Crescent near Bolton Town Hall and shares its main entrance ...
held an exhibition of photos of Sudanese refugees
Sudanese refugees are persons originating from the country of Sudan, but seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and Sudanese Civil War (disambiguation), civil ...
resettled in the town under the programme. A film, titled '' Moving to Mars'' was made about two ethnic Karen families resettled from Burma to Sheffield under the Gateway Protection Programme. The film opened the Sheffield International Documentary Festival
Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
The Festival includes film sc ...
in November 2009 and was aired on the television channel More4
More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas.
Content
When ...
on 2 February 2010. One ethnic Karen refugee resettled with his family in Sheffield in 2006, Kler Heh, signed a professional contract to play football for Sheffield United F.C.
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
in March 2015.
On 17 July 2009, three Congolese men resettled in Norwich under the programme were killed in a car crash on the A1 road
A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country.
* A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar
* A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës
* A001 highwa ...
. The Home Office released a promotional video in October 2009 that highlighted the success of the programme in resettling the first 15 Congolese families in Norwich in 2006. In 2011, the Home Office stopped using Norwich as a resettlement location in favour of locations in Yorkshire and Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, reportedly to the disappointment of the local council.
Evaluations
Resettlement has been presented as a means of the UK fulfilling its obligations towards displaced people in the context of hostile public attitudes towards asylum seekers. Research has shown that members of the British public are generally well disposed to providing protection to genuine refugees, but are sceptical about the validity of asylum seekers' claims. A report published in 2005 states that "some participating agencies have been reluctant to pursue a proactive media strategy due to local political considerations and issues relating to the dispersal of asylum seekers". However, in February 2006, the Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
, when asked about how the programme fitted in with community cohesion
Community cohesion is a conceptual framework which attempts to measure the social relationships within a community. It relies on criteria such as: the presence of a shared vision, inclusion of those with diverse backgrounds, equal opportunity, and ...
strategies, stated in the House of Commons that:
"The early evidence from areas in which authorities have participated in the programme shows that it has been successful in challenging some of the attacks on the notion of political asylum that we have heard in recent years. In Bolton and Sheffield in particular, the towns have rallied around the individuals who have come to them. The programme has been a positive experience for the receiving community and, of course, for the vulnerable individuals who have benefited from the protection that those towns have offered".
A report into the experience of refugees resettled in Brighton and Hove under the scheme between October 2006 and October 2007 was published by the Sussex Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
in December 2007. The report found that the refugees had struggled to gain employment and English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
skills. Another evaluation report undertaken for the Home Office and published in 2011 also found that only small numbers of resettled refugees were in paid employment, noting that many were still more concerned about meeting their basic needs.
In February 2009, the Home Office published a report evaluating the effectiveness of the Gateway Protection Programme. The research it was based upon focused on refugees' integration into British society in the 18 months following their resettlement. The research found that refugees showed signs of integration, including the formation of social bonds through community group
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.
Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...
s and places of worship
A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...
. The report noted that low employment rates and slow progress with acquiring English language skills were particular concerns. Younger refugees and children had made the most progress. No specific language lessons were provided under the Gateway Protection Programme. Instead, Gateway refugees who required help with their English language skills had been provided with access to mainstream English for Speakers of Other Languages
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...
(ESOL) courses, which were run by a range of state, voluntary and community-based organisations. However, the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe reported that in Sheffield, it could be difficult for resettled refugees to gain access to ESOL classes because demand generally exceeded supply – a situation also noted by an evaluation of the scheme's operation in Motherwell undertaken in 2013. The Motherwell evaluation found that most of the male refugees were in employment, but that many of them were not in jobs that allowed them to use their skills. The majority of women were not in work, reflecting a lack of job opportunities but also a lack of childcare provision.
A number of programme evaluations have found that many resettled refugees have been the victims of verbal or physical attacks in the UK. The Home Office's 2009 evaluation noted that between one-quarter and half of each of four groups of Liberian and Congolese refugees resettled under the programme had suffered verbal or physical harassment. An evaluation undertaken by academics at Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
for the Home Office in 2011 found that one-fifth of the refugees surveyed for the evaluation (who had been in the UK for a year) had been the victims of verbal or physical attacks in their first six months in the UK, and just over a fifth had been attacked in the second six months of their resettlement. Many of the victims of this abuse had not reported it to the authorities, and the authors of the evaluation suggested that this was a reason why there was a gap between the perceptions of refugee and service providers, who generally suggested that community relations were good. Verbal and physical attacks against refugees were also noted in the 2013 Motherwell evaluation.
See also
*Modern immigration to the United Kingdom
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the Republic of Ireland and from the former British Empire, especiall ...
*Third country resettlement
Third country resettlement or refugee resettlement is, according to the UNHCR, one of three durable solutions (voluntary repatriation and local integration being the other two) for refugees who fled their home country. Resettled refugees have the ...
Notes
References
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External links
Gateway Protection Programme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gateway Protection Programme
Immigration to the United Kingdom
Refugees in the United Kingdom
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees resettlement programmes
United Kingdom border control
Settlement schemes