The United Kingdom receives dozens of talented Afghan football players. It concerns the promise team of the national football association. This has been confirmed by the British government. Their families are also welcome.
Fearing the Taliban, the young talents left the Afghan capital of Kabul last month. It concerns a group of 35 football players between the ages of 13 and 19. They had been staying in a hotel in Pakistan for the past few weeks, but due to the expiry of their temporary visas next Monday, they were in danger of being sent back to Afghanistan.
“We are doing our best to get their UK residence permits in order and look forward to welcoming the girls and their families to our country shortly,” a British government spokesman said. BBC.
Until now, no other country has wanted to accommodate the Afghan national team talents. “That’s why this is fantastic news, we thanked Prime Minister Boris Johnsen and Home Secretary Priti Patel for this important decision, it may well be the difference between life and death,” said Siu-Anne Marie Gill, director of the British philanthropic organization Rokit Foundation. This club played an important role in arranging and financing the flight of the football players. The group departed from buses from Afghanistan to Lahore in neighboring Pakistan.
Extremely exciting
Gill further told the BBC that the past few days have been extremely exciting. “We clearly noticed that with the girls and their families. Fortunately, we now have confirmation that they can go to the UK, and we expect them to board the plane in a few weeks.”
Several English football clubs, such as Chelsea and Leeds United, have already pledged to support Afghan female talent once they arrive in the UK. Most of the girls come from around Herat, a western city in Afghanistan. According to the ROKiT Foundation, 70 percent of the group has already received multiple death threats.
It might be the difference between life and death
The former national women’s football team from Afghanistan has previously been taken in by Australia. The female juniors of the football association were offered asylum in Portugal. Only for the promises, the group up to 19 years, no solution had yet been found. Until now. They previously tried to flee to Qatar via the airport in Kabul, but this attempt failed after the bomb attack at the airport.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August, women and girls have been banned from playing sports in public.
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