Child seeking asylum blocked from Welsh football academy place under Home Office rules

A Plaid Cymru MS has demanded urgent action after a child seeking asylum in Wales was prevented from joining a football academy because of Home Office rules.

Sioned Williams MS, who represents South Wales West, raised the case in the Senedd on Tuesday, warning that UK immigration policy is preventing children from exercising basic rights — including the right to play sport.

Under current Home Office regulations, academy players are classed as “professional sportspeople”, meaning they require the right to work.

Asylum seekers, including children, are barred from working. As a result, the child in Williams’ constituency — who would not have been paid — was unable to take up the academy place offered to him.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has already raised the issue with the Home Office, arguing the rule unfairly restricts young players’ development. Those representations have so far gone unanswered.

Addressing the First Minister during questions, Ms Williams urged the Welsh Government to intervene:

“While a rules-based immigration system is essential, when such inflexible rules stop children from playing football — and everything that offers them in terms of mental health, inclusion and happiness — they must be looked at again.”

She noted that the Welsh Government has committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), whose protections include the right to play (Article 31) and the right to be free from discrimination (Article 2).

The Welsh Refugee Council and the Children’s Commissioner for Wales have also warned that current immigration rules risk breaching those rights.

Eluned Morgan, responded by expressing sadness at the situation and confirmed that she would make “personal representation” to the Home Office on behalf of the child.

She said: “We are proud of our position in relation to children’s rights in Wales. I will undertake to make my own personal representation to the Home Office in relation to that case.”

Detention

Ms Williams, however, warned that the issue sits within a wider tightening of asylum policy by the UK Government. She criticised new proposals announced by the Home Secretary, which could see children placed in detention and removed from communities where they have begun to settle.

“This is in the same week we’ve heard about the Labour UK Government’s new cruel immigration policies that would see children in Wales potentially ripped from their communities and friends,” she said.

“I was disappointed that when I asked the First Minister if she was concerned that these proposals would undermine her Government’s statutory commitments to uphold children’s rights, she declined to answer.”