Refugees in Indonesia Turn to Soccer to Fill Lives On Hold
Refugees living in Indonesia have developed an all-refugee futsal tournament, with men and women of all ages engaged.
With little official local support, refugees are doing all they can to try to make life meaningful, organising a community life by themselves, including setting up schools and sports teams.
In late 2016, a group of refugees in Indonesia organized an all-refugee futsal tournament, a five-a-side version of soccer that is popular in the local refugee community.
They were inspired by the participation of Team Refugees in the 2016 Olympic Games, says Mobin, an Afghan refugee and former football coach in Iran who was head of the futsal tournament organizing committee.
The futsal tournament launched in September in Cisarua, a town in the mountains of West Java, which is home to around 3,000 of Indonesia’s approximately 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of them ethnic Hazaras who fled persecution in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Refugees in Cisarua are passionate about futsal. The game is accessible and affordable as teams can pool the cost of renting sports grounds. With lots of free time due to lack of education and employment opportunities, the futsal grounds of Cisarua are always full of refugees, both young and old.
“Futsal keeps us busy, so we are not sitting at home and doing nothing. Sports also help us stay away from many problems,” Mobin said.
The game is popular among male and female refugees alike, many of whom aspire to become professional soccer players once they are resettled in another country. Girls started to play futsal at the informal schools set up by the refugee community and, with the support of their peers, gradually grew more comfortable playing in public grounds. Now, futsal has become one way that female refugees from conservative communities in Afghanistan can freely participate in public life.
Word of the tournament spread quickly and around 20 local teams – all male, of mixed ages – joined the tournament. Each team paid 200,000 Indonesian rupiah ($15) to register and then 100,000 rupiah ($7.50) per game, which was put towards the rental of the futsal pitches, hiring two local Indonesian referees and prize money for the winners. One team, FCShahin, had T-shirts made for the tournament with the slogan, “Stand With Refugees,” inspired by the Refugee Olympic Team’s slogan.
After each match, organizers posted the scores and a detailed breakdown of the match on Facebook, and the tournament built up an online following among the local refugee community as well as among the refugees’ relatives back home. Many players also posted their game highlights on social media, allowing them to show friends and family elsewhere that they are still leading productive lives.