Refugees work with Yorkshire Quakers and archaeologists

Settle Quakers hosted five refugees while they worked on a dig run by Ingleborough Archaeology Group

Settle Quakers hosted five political refugees from 2 to 6 June, while they worked on a dig run by Ingleborough Archaeology Group, near Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

The five each hail from a different African country – Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal – and are now living in the Blackburn area.

Eritrean Samuel Yemane, who has a degree in archaeology, said, ‘For me, it is refreshing to work in my favourite discipline, which I have been unable to do since I left my country. It has helped to familiarise me with the methods and techniques that are used here.’

Samuel worked in the National Museum in Asmara before he fled Eritrea. He now works as a postman.

Settle Meeting’s treasurer John Asher has been in touch with refugee groups in Blackburn since the 1990s.

As a member of Ingleborough Archaeology Group, he first helped find refugees interested in taking part in the annual dig in 2012.

The first group was welcomed and accommodated in the Meeting house and so a tradition began, helped by funding from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

John told the Friend of the significance of the project: ‘Most of the refugees have psychological problems resulting from their treatment in their homeland and, sadly, here. One still has. Another, facing deportation, is quite seriously depressed. We can’t claim that a week here wipes away every problem, but it does make a real difference when someone who has arrived depressed starts to smile from time to time and share a joke.’

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