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An Aston Villa fans group have explained why they became the first Premier League football supporters to show solidarity towards a Refugees Welcome campaign.

Brigada 1874, who are based in the lower Holte End for home matches, are making a banner to display at Villa’s next match at Leicester City on Sunday, September 13.

They are well-known at Villa Park for creating banners and visual displays at games.

The Refugees Welcome campaign has been gathering pace at German football clubs, and now Villa fans are supporting it in the UK.

It is also being embraced by fans of lower league and non league clubs.

Former Villa striker Stan Collymore is backing the campaign, saying: “I think our great club could and should do our bit to help.”

The Birmingham Mail talked to a spokesman from Brigada 1874 about their decision to show solidarity to those entering Europe after fleeing war zones in Syria and elsewhere.

What made Brigada and other fans decide to get involved?

The tragic images of three-year-old Aylan lying lifeless on a Turkish shoreline have brought home the grim reality of the current refugee crisis to many people. Aylan died along with his brother Galip and their mother Rehan while fleeing the civil war in Syria in search for a better life in Europe.

They lived in the city of Kobane, a city whose people’s brave resistance against the onslaught from ISIS has helped turn the tide of that particular war in the Middle East. Sadly Aylan, Galip and Rehan are just three of the thousands of people who are dying trying to reach Europe.

Tell us your thoughts on the banner and the refugee crisis in general...

Members of Brigada 1874 along with other Villa fans discussed creating a banner supporting those people seeking sanctuary in Europe. We saw that the Refugees Welcome campaign were organising solidarity actions at English football clubs and thought it would be a good idea to add our support to the campaign.

We feel that as a country we can do more for refugees. England has so far only taken 216 Syrian refugees compared to 30,000 in Germany. We do not believe that support for refugees is mutually exclusive to support for people already living in the UK. There is a huge housing shortage in the UK and often refugees are put in direct competition with other people desperately seeking a home.

We believe that the government should do more to free up the 279,000 homes that are left empty in the UK and use these to house those seeking shelter in the UK and those fleeing war and hunger.

What else will you be doing to help?

It’s been inspiring to see the way the British public have rallied around to offer their support to people seeking refuge here over the last few days and we want to help in what small way we can.

We will be displaying a 5ft x 5ft banner at the game away to Leicester City on Sunday 13th September and we will also be raising money for Asirt and CalAid, two charities who provide direct support to refugees in Birmingham and Calais.

We have set up a crowd funding page here. Visit our website here for more information about us.