Liverpool Council creates TikTok video to help refugees cross roads

The Green Cross Code for Afghans: Liverpool Council creates TikTok video to help refugees who fled the Taliban safely cross the busy roads in Britain

• Liverpool council creates TikTok video to help refugees safely cross the road 
• Video shows road safety officer teaching students about the highway code 
• Liverpool opened its arms to a number of Afghan refugees back in September 
• Footage, taken on January 18, has since received over 118,000 views from users

Liverpool Council has created a TikTok video to help Afghan refugees who fled the country after the Taliban returned to power safely cross the busy roads in Britain. 

The video shows a road safety officer teaching students the highway code so they can efficiently navigate their way through the city’s busy streets.

The footage, taken on January 18, has received over 118,000 views and many users praised the council’s effort for helping make the young refugees feel welcome.     

Liverpool Council has created a TikTok video to help Afghan refugees who fled the country after the Taliban returned to power safely cross the busy roads in Britain

The video shows a road safety officer teaching students the highway code so they can efficiently navigate their way through the city’s busy streets.

The footage, taken on January 18, has received over 118,000 views and many users praised the council’s effort for helping make the young refugees feel welcome

Many viewers have responded with love hearts saying: ‘Welcome to our city, Liverpool!’ 

The council was the first in the UK to get onboard with the TikTok trend, launching an official page on the site in May 2019 but eventually parking the idea until the start of 2020.  

During the 26-second clip, the road safety officer said: ‘It’s good for them to be able to fit in whenever they are here and into schools and I just think it’s a great opportunity for them.’  

A refugee student added: ‘In Afghanistan we don’t have zebra crossings. Here it’s different – there is lots of traffic.’  

The video has gathered hundreds of positive comments from TikTok users who have praised the educational video.

One viewer commented: ‘This is brilliant! Welcome to Liverpool guys.’

Another added: ‘Amazing, thank you for making them feel welcome. A little can really go a long way.’

Another said: ‘Welcome to our city. It’s examples like this video, which are one of the many reasons it is great!’ 

One more added: ‘This is the Britain I know and love. Thank you Liverpool Council for welcoming them here.’  

Liverpool opened its arms to a number of Afghan refugees in September – some are living in hotels, where classrooms have been set up for the children. 

But the countries are so different and there is lots about life in England for the families to learn.

Another of the council’s videos describes how the children have settled in since coming to the UK.

One young girl said: ‘There was Taliban and my dad said “Let’s go to England”.

‘I like it so much, I’m just playing and happy. The worlds are different. There was so many of the Taliban and there’s none here.’

During the 26-second clip, the road safety officer said: ‘It’s good for them to be able to fit in whenever they are here and into schools and I just think it’s a great opportunity for them.’

One user commented: ‘This is the Britain I know and love. Thank you Liverpool Council for welcoming them here.’

Other videos show the council helping to donate bikes to unaccompanied asylum seekers.  

Niall Walsh, head of content at the council, said he was chuffed by the video’s success.

He added: ‘At Liverpool City Council we first toyed with using TikTok back in May 2019 but at the time it just didn’t feel like the right platform for our content so we parked the idea.

‘Fast forward to December when we started to review the year that was and it had largely been a really positive year – our reach grew, engagement grew, we launched a successful podcast but one thing that jumped out to us was we failed to reach a big audience and that was young people.

‘So we asked ourselves, where are all the young people?

‘With 1.5 billion global users, 40% of which are aged 16 to 24 and with ever growing popularity in the UK, it was clear that TikTok is where they are, so that is where some of our content needed to be.’ 

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