THE harsh realities of seeking asylum in Britain will be highlighted in an interactive exhibition which opens in Bolton on Monday.

In a virtual reality experience, visitors will be shouted at in a foreign language by an immigration officer and even put into the back of a lorry to hide.

It is hoped the display at the town centre's Victoria Hall, organised by Befriending Refugees and Asylum Seekers (BRASS) in conjunction with Bolton Council, will increase knowledge of the difficulties experienced by people trying to escape from their own countries.

BRASS chairman Ray Collett said the exhibition, which will run for a week, was the first of its type.

"You will walk in and have some headphones placed on you and have to imagine you have just entered the country," he said.

"You get an immigration officer shouting at you in a foreign language, just as you would if you were seeking asylum.

"You will be directed around the exhibition, taken into interrogation rooms and asked questions that you will not understand.

"Hopefully, by the end of it, you will have a much better understanding of how difficult it is to enter a country with little or no understanding of the language."

Exhibition co-ordinator Pam Whitelaw said it would take 15 minutes for a person to make their way around the eight-station display, which will include information boards and screens.

"You are put in the position of someone seeking asylum," she said. "You have escaped your country and are in hiding in the back of a lorry crossing the border into Britain. It's a realistic scenario.

"At the end, we will give out a questionnaire asking how your beliefs on asylum have been challenged.

"People often only get one side of the story and don't see the reality that people are actually fleeing their country because it is at war or there is civil unrest."

The exhibition is at the BRASS office in the hall's Wesley Suite, which has a drop-in centre where advice and help in form-filling is offered to asylum seekers. It will be open all next week from 10am until 4pm.