‘I cannot unsee what I saw’ – Craig Foster calls on sporting world to help refugees living in ‘utter devastation’
- The former Socceroos captain says refugees and asylum seekers in Port Moresby and Nauru are suffering mental health problems
- Many resort to sport to ease their pain and Foster says various sports can stand together in support of those looking to be resettled
Craig Foster needed to see a psychiatrist before he visited refugees and asylum seekers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
The session was not so much for his own benefit but to coach him on how to speak to vulnerable people who had gone through extreme hardship with many suffering from mental health problems.
“[It was] to avoid giving hope, making promises which could result in self harm,” Foster, a former Socceroos captain and now human rights activist, said. “That’s the reality. I was told that, despite my best efforts, someone could take their life during our interaction or afterwards.”
Foster has called on the world’s sporting community to come together to help find homes for the hundreds of refugees from Manus Island and Nauru who have been prevented from entering Australia and are yet to be resettled.
“Boxing, cricket, football can stand with our brothers and sisters offshore and call for their passage to safety and resettlement away from the dangerous situation they’re in,” said Foster, who is part of the #GameOver movement using sport to fight for human rights.
