Olympics - Refugee team at Games raises awareness about displacement, UN refugee chief says

PARIS: The participation of a refugee team at the Paris Olympics is an opportunity to draw attention to major displacement crises, including from the conflict in Sudan, and the challenges refugees face in host countries, the United Nations refugee chief on Sunday.

In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Olympics in Paris, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said he hoped the Refugee Olympic Team, made up of 37 athletes, would raise awareness about the stigmatisation, marginalisation and violence experienced by refugees.

"Should they spend their youth in this limbo? No," Grandi said of the athlete refugees competing in Paris.

"Let's give them a chance as well. Of course, this is only 37 people, and there are 120 million refugees in the world. But it's powerful as a symbol."

The Paris Games are the third Olympics where a team of refugees is taking part, competing in 12 different sports including athletics, badminton and boxing.

"When you're a refugee, you have same story," Olympic cyclist Amir Ansari, one member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, told Reuters.

"Any sport it is difficult if you are a refugee, and if you are not refugee, too. But if you are a refugee you learn that you have to be tough to survive, and that makes you train harder."

The Olympics, which run until Aug. 11, come as the world faces major displacement crises, including in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Sudan.

Grandi said he was particularly concerned about the conflict in Sudan that has caused hunger, displaced millions inside and outside the country, and brought instability to its already fragile neighbours.

UNHCR this month expanded its Sudan aid plan to Libya and Uganda after a surge in arrivals of people fleeing Sudan's civil war.

The arrivals in Libya raise the prospect that refugees may risk attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to reach Europe, a scenario Grandi said should spark concern among European countries.

"I've been telling all states that if this huge displaced population inside Sudan in the neighbouring countries does not get enough support, these people will move on," he said.

"People will start moving and they will start moving to safer areas and to areas from which perhaps they hope to go even further. So when I hear European states in particular express concern, rightly so."