Background

The Somali presence in Wales goes back well over a hundred years and has been concentrated, until recently, in the old docklands of Cardiff.

Early settlers were predominantly male whose main source of employment was the sea in Cardiff’s heyday as a major international seaport The early 1980s brought
another arrival of Somalis, who were fleeing from the Civil War in the Horn of African. It is estimated that
currently over 8000 Somalis Live in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea making them the largest ethnic
minority community in Wales.

Somaliland

The vast majority of Somalis in Wales hail from what was formerly British Somaliland. The protectorate gained independence as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960.

Days later, it joined with Italian Somaliland, to form a new Somali Republic (Somalia) on 1 July 1960. The Government of Somalia collapsed to clan militias in 1991 and has been without stable government ever since. Somaliland declared independence in on 18 May 1991.

The Government of Somaliland is not internationally recognised.