Asylum seekers in Hereford play last football game

ON a chilly morning in the dying days of January a bunch of 25 young men turn up to play what would be their last game of football in Hereford.

They jump off their bikes, grinning, shaking hands, tying boot laces, fizzing with energy.

They are asylum seekers from the city's Three Counties Hotel and for almost a year the regular Wednesday game on the all-weather pitch at the Hereford Football Association (HFA) ground has been the highlight of their week.

They have played Sunday matches against invitation sides. Several were taken on by local teams; one has become a licensed coach.

The men seeking asylum who have been enjoying playing football with local teams while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed.

Now the hotel is closing and they are being moved on to what the Home Office terms “dispersal housing” in other towns and cities in the West Midlands.

At the end of the game they crowd round the man who made it all happen, the HFA’s burly development officer Scott Russell, who hands out chocolate biscuits and positive advice. They must see the move as an opportunity, he tells them, heading to bigger cities than Hereford where there will be more football to play. They will keep in touch on Facebook. As the players get up to leave the ground for the last time there are hugs and shoulder slapping and brave smiles.

READ MORE: Future uncertain for Hereford hotel amid major asylum seekers update

“They have been great,” Russell tells me, “never any trouble, always respectful. The national Football Association has seen that the project worked here and are looking at pushing it out in other places with asylum seekers.”

What the players say about their footie

A few days later I meet three of the players, Abdi, Yemane and Sofayas, on the terrace at the Left Bank. When they first arrived in Hereford they tell me, they didn’t like to go out.

"People stared at us,” says Sofyas, “I think they thought we were well off sleeping and having three meals a day but human minds need activity.”

Abdi nods: “We were so lonely and shy.”

They began having English lessons with volunteers from Hereford City of Sanctuary which supports refugees.

“Our teacher, Bob, he took us on foot one day to the football ground," recalls Sofayas. "We met Scott and from that day on we played football every week. We all waited for Wednesdays.

"For Scott everyone is his favourite person; he doesn’t know the word no. He got us all boots, he helped my get my coaching licence, he was there for us.”

He frowns: “To be honest, without the football it is going to be very hard.”

Volunteers who help

Niki Nakamura and Maddy Salisbury from HCoS have visited the asylum seekers every week helping them with paperwork, medical appointments, writing to the Home Office on their behalf.

“Advocacy work really,” Niki explains when I call her. “It often involved writing multiple letters and emails, hanging on the phone to the Home Office helpline.

"The hardest thing for them is the sense of not knowing, waiting and waiting in limbo. So a lot of our effort has been to occupy them: getting them into college, into sport and into the local community as volunteers.”

Abdi tells me he has been working in the Oxfam bookshop and at the Hinton community centre.

“We did gardening with Margaret. She is like our grandmother, and Richard, he is our uncle. It is like family. We feel we are belonging.”

As the months went on they found they could walk into town with their heads held high. Some of the group helped at the Hereford AppleFest.

“And then we were invited to the mayor’s party at the city hall,” says Yemane. “We met the mayor; it was like, wow!”

What they miss and what they are hoping for

“People have been very kind,” said Abdi. “In future when we hear the word Hereford so many happy things will come to our minds.”

The three are originally from Eritrea. Do they miss the food from home?

“I miss Injera,” says Yemane, “It is a pancake made from teff, an indigenous grain.”

Sofayas scoffs: “A useless indigenous grain! I say if it was nutritious you English people would have it by now.”

We laugh. “I am not listening,” protests Yemane. The food at the hotel is good, they agree.

“Diane serves it,” says Sofayas. “She is like a mother to us. She asks how we are. She is there when we feel bad or sad.”

Herefordshire Football Association development officer Scott Russell with some of the young men seeking asylum who have been staying at the Three Counties Hotel, Hereford, while they wait for their claims to be processed.

It is time for them to go. We say goodbye and I watch them leave to pack their bags, heading for an uncertain future.

“We are feeling quite raw about losing these guys,” Niki Nakamura tells me later. "They have become friends over the past year and it has been such a privilege working with them.

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"They are being scattered to the winds to live in shared houses.

"Some are going to bigger cities where there are established support networks but I had a call from one who left yesterday.

"He was in tears in a tiny room in an empty house in Wednesbury. He was so disappointed.

"There will be others joining him and he will find his feet but this dispersal business is miserable.”

Vicki Murray, chair of HCoS, said: “All the guys have looked forward so much to their weekly football sessions. It has been fantastic for them both physically and mentally and Scott has been a really positive support for them. They will travel on the next stage of their journey all the stronger for it.”