The refugee team's participation in the Paris Olympics is an opportunity to draw attention to the massive refugee crisis, including that caused by the conflict in Sudan, and the challenges refugees face in host countries, the UN refugee chief said Sunday (28/7)
In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Paris Olympics, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said he hoped the Olympic Refugee Team, made up of 37 athletes, would raise awareness about the stigmatization, marginalization and violence experienced by refugees.
Grandi said all the bad things that happen to refugees are real and will continue to happen after the Olympics. The involvement of the refugee team in the Olympics will raise attention to the problems faced by refugees.
“Should they spend their youth in this uncertainty? Of course not,” Grandi said of the refugee athletes competing in Paris.
“Give them a chance. Of course, this refugee team is only 37 people, and there are 120 million refugees in the world. But it is very powerful as a symbol,” he continued.
The Paris Olympics were the third Olympics to feature a refugee team. They competed in 12 different sports, including athletics, badminton and boxing.
“When you are a refugee, you have the same story,” Olympic cyclist Amir Ansari, a member of the Olympic Refugee Team, told Reuters.
“Any sport is hard if you are a refugee, and if you are not a refugee too. But if you are a refugee, you learn that you are tough to survive and that makes you train harder.”
The Olympics, which run until August 11, come as the world faces a major refugee crisis, including in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Sudan. (ab/uh)
