Training yes, passport no. Is this team a chance for a better life or whitewashing the IOC's image?
There are around 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. They are fleeing war and persecution. 37 of them are competing in the Olympic refugee team. According to the IOC, it is a chance to improve the fate of those wandering around the world in search of a better life. But activists helping refugees do not agree with this idyllic narrative. – The existence of this team has no impact on the problem of migration. It is a kind of whitewashing of the image of the organizers of the games – Anna Alboth, who has been working with refugees for years, tells tvn24.pl.
Devastated by war Syriaruled by the Taliban AfghanistanCameroon, which is intolerant of homosexuals and does not tolerate any opposition to religious precepts Iran. The refugee team, playing in its third Olympics, includes athletes from all over the world who have gone through a lot to get to this place. Their stories have happy endings, although nothing seemed to suggest that a few years ago.
– The Olympic refugee team shows everyone what an enrichment refugees are for our Olympic community. And for society as a whole. At the same time, you are making billions of people around the world aware of the scale of the refugee crisis – said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, to athletes preparing to compete under the Olympic flag in May.
– Putting all people in the world in one bag under the title of “refugees”, people of all ages, all sexes, with completely different stories, is unfair and greatly damages the entire system around the topic of migration. I have been working with refugees all over the world for many, many years and I know that if a person applies for international protection and then receives status and residence in a country, they want to forget about their time as a refugee as soon as possible. – says Anna Alboth, a defender human rightsmigration activist with Minority Rights Group International.
The refugee team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in ParisXinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Jiang Wenyao/PAP
Escape from the Ayatollahs
Jamal Valizadeh was born into a family with wrestling traditions. When he was 20, he won his first Iranian championship. His strength, combined with his lack of indifference to human suffering, became a curse when, during one of the demonstrations, he stood in defense of demonstrators attacked by the police. In “Le Parisien”, he explained that he found himself near a Kurdish protest against the actions of the Islamic State. At one point, he saw officers beating up protesters.
– I threw myself between the legs of one of the officers and used a wrestling technique on him. – he said in an interview with a French newspaper.
He was arrested for assaulting a police officer.
– I was beaten in custody. They didn't let me sleep, and the cell was so small that I couldn't even sit down. Every 20 minutes they took me for another interrogation, even though I had nothing new to say. Eventually I managed to get out on bail, but I knew that the sentence had only been postponed – he said.
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