The head of a United Nations’ agency says refugee athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics will inspire people facing challenges.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, spoke about the athletes, who are originally from 11 countries, in an online.
The refugee team followed Greece as the second squad to enter the National Stadium at the opening ceremony on Friday.
Grandi said the athletes “have fled from war, persecution, discrimination. So the symbolism that they carried in the Tokyo stadium was so powerful in this very difficult situation” that Japan and the world faces amid the pandemic.
He also said, “the fact they are here in Tokyo, competing with the world’s top athletes is such an incredible achievement” for people who “were on the run, escaping, deprived of all the basics.”
He said, “through determination, through training, through a great deal of faith in the future, they have come to where they have come,” adding that “this will inspire everybody.”
Grandi touched on a memorandum the UNHCR and Japan signed last week. Japanese immigration authorities will seek advice from the UN agency to make their criteria for granting refugee status clearer.
He said Japan’s system for recognizing refugees “is a bit slow and cumbersome” and “this memorandum can help us work together.”
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