Football club made refugees so welcome

YOUR paper reported the great victory Newport County had over Accrington Stanley, but your paper and readers didn’t know that County were involved that day in welcoming people from other parts of Wales as well as the influx from Accrington.

The Exiles kindly invited a group of young men seeking sanctuary in Swansea and Newport to enjoy a pre-match kickabout on the practice pitches and to attend the match.

It provided a great excuse for these two groups to have a meal together and to realise that they are much more welcome than the Home Office policies would have them believe.

Our group provided some funding and support to make this work, but

a wonderful afternoon and evening couldn’t have happened at all without the wholehearted support of the County in Community team, which arranged the pre-match games and tickets.

The supporters were welcoming and seemed to enjoy the spectacle of rain-soaked players scoring goals from ever-more improbable angles.

These young men love football, which provides a common language and a much-needed physical and mental health-building exercise.

Living, as many of them do, on less than £38 a week, watching a live professional football match was a dream that they didn’t think would actually happen.

It was wonderful, also, to see such a positive attitude from the supporters and staff, who made people who often feel marginalised and unwelcome at best feel like honoured guests – albeit very wet ones.

Ailsa Dunn Secretary for Hay, Brecon & Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees