Goal Click and Amnesty International UK Partner on Refugee Initiative
April 16, 2021
This month football clubs across the UK are taking part in Amnesty International UK’s Football Welcomes initiative to highlight the role that football can play in creating more welcoming communities for refugees and people seeking asylum. Now in its fifth year, Football Welcomes - supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery - celebrates the contributions players from refugee backgrounds make to the game and shows ways the football community can help support them. A record high number of 209 football clubs are taking part this year.
For people fleeing conflict and persecution, football can play a hugely important role in helping them to settle into a new country and culture, to make friends, learn the language and get to know the local areas. To further mark the April celebration, Amnesty has teamed up with Goal Click for a special photography series showcasing stories from refugees across the country through football.
Goal Click and Amnesty worked with five partners of the Football Welcomes Community project: Leicester City in the Community, Liverpool County FA, Middlesbrough FC Foundation, Aston Villa Foundation and Club Doncaster Foundation. Across the partners, six players from refugee backgrounds told their stories through their experiences with football using analougue photography and their own words.
Participant Shaygan Banisaeid from Middlesbrough noted: “Without football there is no doubt that getting settled in a different country and different culture would be ten times more difficult for me and I know it is the same for our participants in the Club Together project. On the pitch, we are all speaking a common language, Football Language.”
Naomi Westland, Movement Building Manager, Amnesty International UK, said: “The impact of the pandemic combined with the government’s new asylum proposals mean it’s more important than ever that communities come together to show solidarity with refugees and people seeking asylum. The game can be a powerful force for good, bringing people together and providing a sense of purpose and belonging. For those who’ve fled conflict and persecution and had to leave everything behind, this is incredibly important.”
Goal Click uses art to give people a chance to show what football means to them. The organisation finds inspirational people all over the world to tell compelling stories about their football lives and communities through analogue photography, film and their own words. In 2020, Goal Click launched Goal Click Refugees in partnership with UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency. The ongoing series collaborates with refugees and asylum seekers around the world to document their personal stories and experiences through football in refugee settlements, urban situations and playing among their host communities.
“Negative media stories about refugees are frequent, but it is rare to hear their voices and see the world through their eyes. This Goal Click series for Football Welcomes aims to challenge stereotypes and give a real, intimate look into refugees' football lives from their own perspective. Football is often the best way to create a more welcoming community and can help people better understand the stories of refugees,” said Matthew Barrett, Founder of Goal Click.
In Leicester, Adela Rezaei - originally from Afghanistan - took photographs of her sister in their garden to show that women and girls have the ability to play football and to reflect the lack of facilities, lack of security and other difficult conditions for girls and women. Leicester City in the Community partners with After18, a charity that specialises in supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young refugees under 25 to adjust to living in the UK.
“Football has a very strong role in my life. I can play my favourite sport, have good experiences and learn new things. Playing in a team and playing football helped me find new friends and meet people with experience of being professional.”
Created in 2017, Football Welcomes is part of Amnesty International’s 'I Welcome' campaign for a better international response to the global refugee crisis. It is the biggest celebration of football and refugees in the UK, encompassing over half the Premier League, two-thirds of English Football League clubs and almost all of the Women’s National League teams. The campaign encourages local communities to work together to create a more welcoming environment for people fleeing conflict and persecution.
Image credits: Amnesty International UK / Goal Click.