Refugee Teams in Continental Games

(ATR) The International Olympic Committee could have set a powerful global example for the creation of more Refugee Teams at Continental Games and other regional mega-events.

The IOC has been assisting in this purpose through sport since 1994 in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

In 2016, the first IOC Refugee Olympic Team competed in Rio de Janeiro, and Olympic Solidarity has been supporting 56 refugee scholar-athletes in the run-up to Tokyo. Twenty-nine athletes competing in 12 sports and from 13 host National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will be part of the refugee team at Tokyo 2020.

"The IOC encourages the entire Olympic Movement to follow suit," the Olympic body told Around the Rings when asked about the possibility that Refugee Teams could compete at continental games.

The statements to ATR were made on the occasion of World Refugee Day on June 20.

The IOC urged to support migrant athletes and coaches in their training and participation in competitions.

"Many International Federations are already doing this and have a team or individual refugee athletes competing in their World, Continental and Olympic Qualification Championships" commented the Olympic spokesperson.

As a more recent example, on Sunday the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) drew attention to its newest discipline, Baseball5, as a sport accessible to refugees.

The IOC recalled that the Olympic Council of Asia also had a refugee team that participated in continental Games. Following the participation of the first Refugee Olympic Team in Rio 2016, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games entered a Refugee Team in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, in 2017.

The five athletes who competed then under the Olympic Council of Asia flag were from South Sudan and three had been part of the first IOC Refugee Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In April 2019 another team participated in African Youth Games based in Huye, Rwanda with IOC support. The team was composed of young people originating from 12 nations.

In Colombia, World Refugee Day was celebrated with a new program for protection and social cohesion through sport aimed especially at young refugees and migrants from Venezuela.

More than two-thirds of all refugees and displaced persons abroad come from just five countries: Syria (6.7 million), Venezuela (4 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million), South Sudan (2.2 million) and Myanmar (1.1 million), according to UNHCR reports.

In the Americas there are around 16 million refugees, including those who move within the country and those who go to other nations.

Mexico is a major point of final destination for thousands of refugees and migrants on their way to the United States. Between January and May 2021, it is estimated that more than 15,000 people arrived in Panama, many of them from Haiti and Cuba, in addition to others coming from different French-speaking African countries, Pakistanis and Yemenis, and also Asians, on their way to the North.

The number of people who have been forced to leave their places of origin rose to 82.4 million in 2020, an unprecedented number, despite bans on movement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to UNHCR.

The IOC Refugee Olympic Team and its athletes are a symbol of hope for refugees around the world, a message that will be reinforced by their presence at future Pan American, European, Asian and Pan-African Games, and other regional events, should the post-Covid world permit.

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

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