SWINDON Town football fans are helping spearhead a campaign taking shape at football grounds across the country this weekend to show support and solidarity in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Syria and the Mediterranean.

Inspired by Bundesliga fans in Germany, banners reading Refugees Welcome will be held aloft to greet the players on September 12, coinciding with London protests urging the Government to accept more refugees.

Since the outset of the Syrian crisis in early 2011, the UK granted asylum or some other form of humanitarian protection to just under 5,000 Syrians, with 216 Syrian refugees resettled in the UK.

A social media campaign from a group behind @RefugeesEFL has now been backed by dozens of clubs, with Swindon and Aston Villa the first to pledge support.

"After seeing what was being done in the Bundesliga I was really interested to follow suit," said Swindon fan Jay Collett, who has organised previous displays from the stands at Wembley and the opening match of the season at the County Ground.

"There are a couple of guys running the Twitter campaign to replicate what they have done in Germany over here across the country on September 12, so I wanted to jump on board as early as possible to get Swindon involved and help him promote the campaign and get it noticed.

"We were one of the first sets of fans to get on board, which I'm really proud of, and it will be at the away match against Barnsley when we will have a banner which will be held aloft as the players come out.

"Lots of other teams have now got involved, like Fulham, Norwich and Rotherham, and I think most stadiums in the country will have something like this at the weekend because so many teams are looking to get something started and get the fans talking about this."

The campaign gathered momentum after the shocking images emerged of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned attempting to reach Greece last week.

Jay said he hoped the campaign would help give out a more positive message instead of the bombardment of grim images in the media.

"I think this will help us to talk about the whole issue more positively, instead of pictures like those, which are horrific," he said.

"I just wanted to emphasise that we are not trying to speak for every Swindon fan here. This is obviously a controversial subject and divides opinion, so if you do not agree with it you don't have to take part. It is just meant to start a conversation about the subject.

"I am going to be making the banner myself, and because I live in Bath, I have got friends there and they are my number two team, so we are going to work together and make a couple of banners during this week.

Jay added the whole project will cost around £40 or £50 to make, but more than £200 has already been raised in donations.

"Whatever is left over will be going towards a charity we choose that is helping the refugees in Syria," Jay added.

Last Saturday, Swindon People's Assembly and the Swindon Area Green Party held a protest in the town centre calling for more help for those fleeing the conflict.

Andy Bentley, spokesperson for the Swindon Area Green Party, said: "We are calling on Swindon Borough Council to make immediate plans to house and support 22 of the refugees as part of the joint European effort.

"The Council often say that they would like to put Swindon on the map, what better way than by taking a lead and stepping forward now to support any subsequent national effort to help even more people."

To donate to the Swindon Town campaign visit http://www.gofundme.com/stfc_refugees.