“It wasn’t just a one-off like the public perception was”
Gary Lineker has invited a second refugee to live in his home, just one year after he allowed a student from Pakistan to move in with him.
The Match of the Day host has revealed that he is currently in the process of finalising the paperwork with a charity to welcome a second refugee from Balochistan, which is a province of Pakistan.
The former England international has previously spoken about his desire to help refugees, stating that he is keen to use his position and resources in order to help those in need.
“The refugee thing, I will never be able to comprehend being attacked for wanting to help people who are being bombed, who are risking their lives jumping on dinghies because they’re so desperate,” Lineker told The Sun.
“How can anyone have a total lack of empathy for people in the most dire circumstances?
“I was actually supposed to take another one a couple of weeks ago, but am just waiting on the paperwork. It wasn’t just a one-off like the public perception was.
“It’s genuine. I got a lot out of it, and it was just a wonderful experience.”
Lineker began campaigning for refugees following the tragic loss of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, who sadly drowned off the coast of Greece in 2015.
Speaking in September 2020, he said: “It was seeing the images of what was happening when they were going in the boats and landing in Greece, seeing families dying, it just struck me as so intolerably sad.
“I just thought we were going anti them with front pages with all this anti-refugee propaganda and I thought, put yourself in their shoes.
“Imagine if it was London that was being bombed and we had to flee somewhere and nobody would accept you and nobody would want us and everyone would hate you.”
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