Refugees given own team to compete at Olympics

A TEAM of refugees will compete under the Olympic flag at this year’s Rio de Janeiro Games, offering a message of hope to those fleeing conflict.

Some 43 athletes have already been identified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as prospective Olympians, and offered help with training.

As many as 10 could be selected for Team Refugee Olympics Athletes (ROA).

Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, said: “By welcoming ROA to the Olympic Games in Rio, we want to send a message of hope to all the refugees of the world.”

“Having no national team to belong to, having no flag to march behind, having no national anthem to be played, these refugees will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem,” he said.

They will walk out as the penultimate team in the opening ceremony - ahead of Brazil, which as host nation has the honour of completing the parade.

“This team will be treated during Olympics like all the other teams,” said Mr Bach. “It will enjoy all the privileges like the other teams and athletes.”

The past year has seen the plight of refugees highlighted across Europe as hundreds of thousands of people fled Syria’s civil war for Europe, via Turkey and Greece.

Their arrival provoked an outpouring of sympathy but also stoked political tensions about how best to cope with their numbers, and raised fears that economic migrants or terrorists were among their numbers.

The new team was announced at the end of a two-day IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne.

The final selection will be based on sporting achievement, as well as personal circumstances of the sportsmen and women and will be announced in June. “It depends very much on the sporting qualifications,” said Mr Bach.

The IOC identified in December three athletes who had fled their home countries and whose skills could be of a high enough standard to feature in the Olympics.

They were a Syrian swimmer based in Germany, a judoka from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was living in Brazil and an Iranian taekwondo fighter training in Belgium.