Двенадцеро палестинских детей из Наблуса впервые посетили Болтон, чтобы почувствовать себя в безопасности

For a group of Palestinian children, a trip to Bolton has meant flowers, fountains, new faces and the chance to enjoy a little freedom away from home. The children, aged between 12 and 14, have travelled from Nablus, a city in Palestine, to spend time in Bolton after their visas were finally granted just days before their journey. They spent time visiting Bolton’s best attractions, and also sights such as the Lake District. Julia Simpkins, who organised the visit, said: “If you ask the children, when they've been here more than a day, the main thing that they say is that they feel safe here. “In Nablus, when you go out on the streets, there are groups of young Israeli soldiers with enormous rifles, and you never know what's going to happen. “So they feel very safe here.” They had visited Yasmin Qureshi MP, of Bolton South and Walkden, to try and put pressure on the Government to make travelling from Palestine to the UK quicker at border control. The group have been enjoying the sights and experiences Bolton has to offer, with the children describing the town as beautiful with its historic buildings. One girl, named Lilas, said: “Bolton is very different with the buildings, roads, weather, everything. “It's very good, and I like it.” Another child, Mennah, said: “It's very, very, very beautiful. “The people are different, and the culture is too, because the people are nice here.” The Bolton News played a part in helping the group secure their visas, after an earlier article about the children's visits was seen by officials. Ms Simpkins said: “One of the reasons that they'd given the visa to us was that they'd seen the Bolton News article from 2017. “So they could see the kind of things that the children do while they're here; they could see that the children came and went back. “That went in our favour, getting the visa this time.” For Ms Simpkins, getting the children to Britain was far from straightforward. She said: “We were only told last Thursday that we'd got the visas this time. “That gave me five days to raise enough money to pay for the flights, to pay for the travel expenses of getting them to and from the airport, to sort out their accommodation, to get enough money to pay for their food, to sort out things for them to do. “I had five days to do all of that.” The visit comes against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict, which has shaped everyday life for the children in Nablus. Ms Simpkins said the children had told her they usually went to school, returned home and spent time watching television or using their phones because they were scared to go outside. But in Bolton, the simple pleasures have mattered. She said the children had been taking photographs with flowers because they had “never seen flowers like that before”. Hatem Hafi, Head of the Culture Centre in Nablus, said: “And all the people are welcoming, friendly, all the people are friendly. “And they get all the time, and when they ask, from where you are, we say Palestine, they are very happy to welcome us and to invite us. “Here is mixed between Indian and Pakistani, and a lot of different cultures.” However, Mr Hafi said the children are affected by the conflict overseas. He added: “They are being under the war, yes, so it makes them have depression all the time. “Every one of them has a story.” The group have now had the chance to experience the town, meet people and make memories that are a world away from the circumstances they have left behind.