Gateway Protection Programme
Following a proposal by the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, in October 2001, the legal basis was established by the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and the programme itself launched in March 2004.
Afghan, Liberian, Congolese, Sudanese, Burmese, Ethiopian, Mauritanian, Iraqi, Bhutanese, Eritrean, Palestinian and Somali refugees were amongst those who were resettled under the programme.
[12] 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.
[14][15] The Ten or More Plan, established by UNHCR in 1973 and administered in the UK by the British Red Cross,[16][17] is for refugees requiring medical attention not available in their current location.
[20] Refugees have also been resettled through specific programmes following emergencies,[21] including 42,000 Ugandan Asians expelled from Uganda during 1972–74, 22,500 Vietnamese during 1979–92, over 2,500 Bosnians in the 1990s, and over 4,000 Kosovars in 1999.
[33] The British government had faced criticism from academics and practitioners over the small number of refugees it has resettled in comparison with other developed states.
[6][35] 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.
[45] 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.
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.
[46] In September 2015, in the context of the European migrant crisis, Labour Party leadership candidate Yvette Cooper called for an increase in the number of refugees resettled in the UK to 10,000.
[74] 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.
[75] In 2007, North Lanarkshire Council won the "Creating Integrated Communities" category in the UK Housing Awards for its involvement in the Gateway Protection Programme.
[79] A film, titled Moving to Mars was made about two ethnic Karen families resettled from Burma to Sheffield under the Gateway Protection Programme.
[88] 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.
[90] 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.
[34] 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.
[91] 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".
[92] However, in February 2006, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department Andy Burnham, when asked about how the programme fitted in with community cohesion 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.
[94] 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.
[66] The research found that refugees showed signs of integration, including the formation of social bonds through community groups and places of worship.
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[97] – a situation also noted by an evaluation of the scheme's operation in Motherwell undertaken in 2013.
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.
