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Five African football teams all set to travel to the UK on Monday 19 July take part in the Homeless World Cup, the global street soccer tournament kicking off global poverty, have been refused entry to the UK by the British government. Just days before they were due to travel to Edinburgh for the event, entry is refused on the basis that they do not have sufficient funds to support themselves whilst visiting the UK

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It also seems add, given the long list of sponsors on the sidebar of the webpage that the UK government is so certain that the African teams won't be able to support themselves. There's a number of issues related to this: immigration and asylum (I wonder if the Home Department is worried about some of them claiming refugee status), the irony that the African teams are denied entry because they "do not have the money to support themselves" while many of the European team members do not either, as well as the juxtaposition between Blair's grand statements about Africa and the government's refusal to support an initiative that has already shown a great deal of success of reducing poverty and unemployment.

[ 17 July 2005: Message edited by: kurichina ]

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Just days before they were due to travel to Edinburgh for the event, entry is refused on the basis that they do not have sufficient funds to support themselves whilst visiting the UK

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A Canadian of my acquaintance told me that she once went to Britian for a holiday, and landed at the airport on or around Christmas day. After asking her how much money she was brining into the country, the customs agents told her she couldn't enter because it wasn't enough. This after she had actually flown to Britian!

I always found ths story a little hard to believe, but then I've never been to Britian or had any plans to go. Does anyone know if this is indeed an accptable pracice at British airports?

[ 17 July 2005: Message edited by: voice of the damned ]

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I'm guessing this was in pre-debit-card days or something when your relative would have been relying on cash/travellers' cheques.

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This was the mid-90s some time.

Back onto the thread topic, that really does suck, kurichina. We are lucky enough to have The Big Issue here in Australia, too. As a regular reader (and very occaisional writer) I was excited to hear about the Homeless World Cup, but dismayed to read that the participants had been denied entry on this basis. Surely it would be well within the means of some of the sponsors mentioned in the article to help out? Although it's a bit bloody late for that now, hey?

Oh, and go the Street Socceroos!!

{Edited to point out that the Canucks are in there kicking, too.}

[ 17 July 2005: Message edited by: Suzette ]

I agree with you, puzzlic, that the idea of some homeless people having the funds to support themselves but not others is laughable. I'm fighting the urge to make a knee-jerk observation about how this could, ju-u-u-ust possibly be construed as a racist judgement on the part of UK Immigration, because that would be an easy conclusion to leap to. Maybe the sponsors of the other teams had them better covered financially? No, I don't think so, either.

I can only guess that it is to do with the visa requirements I mentioned earlier -- in part, at least.

typo typo typo...

[ 18 July 2005: Message edited by: Suzette ]