Enlarge image
Kim Karadshian (archive image)
Photo:
MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS
A charter flight financed by US reality TV star Kim Kardashian has brought players from an Afghan girls' soccer team to the UK.
The 35 soccer players and their families, a total of 130 people, landed at Stansted Airport near London on Thursday, according to the Rokit Foundation involved in the evacuation.
The soccer team fled Afghanistan after the radical Islamic Taliban came to power.
The young people first came to Pakistan, where they received a visa for a limited period of 30 days.
However, they feared they would be sent back to Afghanistan once their residence permits had expired and they looked for another host country.
A charter plane has now brought them to Great Britain, where they want to build a new life in a hotel after a ten-day corona quarantine.
A Kardashian spokesman confirmed to UK news agency PA that the flight was funded by Kardashian and her clothing brand Skims.
"Deeply moved by the courage of these girls"
The chairwoman of the Rokit Foundation, Siu-Anne Gill, said she was "deeply moved by the courage of these girls."
"That inspired us to make sure that your efforts to escape were not in vain." The Tzedek Association, a non-profit organization founded by Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, also provided support for the escape.
The Premier League club Leeds United has also offered to help the footballers after their arrival in England.
Club owner Andrea Radrizzani was delighted with the team's safe landing in Great Britain.
"We are honored to have played our part and are grateful that the British government made it possible for them to travel to the UK."
A UK government spokesman said the Afghan girls' soccer team would receive a "warm welcome, support and shelter" in the UK.
After their return to power, the Taliban announced in mid-August that Afghan women could continue to play football, albeit only under strict conditions.
Above all, you are not allowed to play in public.
For women, sport was seen as a political act of resistance against the Taliban.
Hundreds of women athletes have left Afghanistan since the extremists came back to power.
Numerous players from the Afghan women's national team and their families were brought to safety in Australia.
The girls' youth team found refuge in Portugal.
wit / AFP / AP
