Remember the Refugees: A Spotlight on the Stateless
How well do you know your national anthem? What is it about the raising of your flag against the background of a tune that evokes so much emotion? The Olympics, the world’s largest sporting event, and a quadrennial reminder of how much it means to represent one’s country on a global scale. For many athletes, a gold medal in their discipline often represents the pinnacle of a lifetime’s achievement. Yet this year, ten athletes are out to dispel that comfortable notion. Meet Team Refugees.
In its 120-year history, 2016 will be the first time a refugee team will participate at the Olympic games. For the ten athletes, simply getting an opportunity to compete alongside the world’s elite is a triumph on its own. For the rest of us, by arriving at the global stage with a flag that reminds us they no longer have a flag, the refugee team forces us to confront the present. Indeed Olympic sport is inherently political — essentially a United Nations General Assembly, but one where the superpowers have no veto.
‘No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in the Olympic areas’ — Olympic Charter 5
Yet try telling that to Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, or to the families of the Israeli athletes from 1972, or even to Taiwan who compete as ‘Chinese Taipei’. In 2016, Team Refugees are symbols of the contradictions of the modern world. These athletes lie at the confluence of hope, desperation and elite competition. An opportunity to do what they love in the sheltered realm of athletic competition, yet constantly reminded of what they have lost by the presence of their competitors.
In a world where borders are being blurred by increased integration and a digital world, Team Refugees reminds us of the problematic nature of blending nationalism with identity. Indeed, all the countries they have fled from have also fielded their own teams.
Ultimately, in a world where the total number of refugees are enough to be the 57th-largest country on earth, Team Refugees can use this as a platform to give many more refugees hope that reclamation of dignity is possible, despite the fate that has befallen them.
At upnnunder, we will spotlight these athletes as more than just statistics and headlines — they have their own story. Take that of Yusra Mardini, a 18-year-old swimmer who fled Damascus on a dinghy on the second attempt. The dinghy, meant to accommodate 6, had 20 people on board, including her sister. After experiencing engine failure, her and her sister alongside two other males were the only ones that could swim. Faced with little choice, they jumped overboard just to rescue them from all capsizing. They swam for over 3 hours, neck-deep in the Mediterranean during high tide trying to help the boat stay on course, and they somehow did it. Yusra and her sister got separated from their mother at a young age. Yet for every story like hers, there’s many more where none knew how to swim. Where some didn’t get a boat to escape with, or a smuggler in the first place. She is one of two swimmers that fled Syria, the other being 25-year-old, Anis Rami.
The Olympic games, in its character, is based on the entire notion that participants take part to help in building a peaceful and better world, fostering the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. Few places lie in stark contrast to these values than South Sudan, where citizens are caught in the cross-hairs of a terrible struggle for power.
South Sudan has the curious distinction of providing half the members of Team Refugees. All have been residents of the Kakuma refugee camp, based in Turkana district, in northern Kenya. Established in 1992 to serve Sudanese refugees, it was later expanded to cater for Somali, Ethiopian, Burundian, Congolese, Eritrean, Ugandan, and Rwandese asylum seekers. It is one of the largest refugee settlements in the world with just around 200,000 residents. Housing comprises of thatched roof huts, tents and even mud houses.
Once admitted into the camp, residents are unable to wander outside to seek education or employment. The area is susceptible to problems not confined to just harsh weather — Turkana is a semi-arid area and conditions get tough with temperatures getting to around 40ºC/104ºF — but also disease outbreaks such as cholera and malaria. Many refugees age into adulthood within these confines, and many grow into hopelessness.
Kakuma Refugee Camp is administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. Of the several programmes they have set up, sports programmes are common in the camp. It’s not rare to see a netball game, a football match, a volleyball game, or even wheelchair basketball being played by landmine victims. A special track and field project was started and it is from here that the five Olympians emerged to take part in the athletics:
Yiech Pur Biel, fled South Sudan and lived in Kakuma for 10 years.
James Chiengjiek, who is in his late 20s, having fled Sudan to avoid being recruited as a child soldier.
Paulo Amotun Lokoro, who also fled South Sudan.
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, 21-year-old runner who joined Kakuma at the age of 6.
Rose Nathike Lokonyen, 23-year-old who discovered she could run in a 10km competition held at the camp.
A special mention must be given to the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, supported and named after one of Kenya’s most renowned runners in the 1990s and 2000s. Upon conducting tryouts in 2015, her foundation selected residents from Kakuma for training and the five above were good enough to make qualifying Olympic times, despite their conditions. Such programmes have been useful in fostering relationships between refugees and locals in a place with scarce natural resources, and ease tensions where they may easily arise.
The three remaining refugees that make up the team are Poole Misenga, who sought asylum in Brazil in 2013, and Yolanda Mabika, both of whom fled the Democratic Republic of Congo 3 years ago to live in Rio de Janeiro. They are both judokas, in the 90kg and 70kg categories respectively.
Yonas Kinde is the oldest in the team, a native of Ethiopia who fled due to political problems. He currently is living in Luxembourg since 2013, and has a marathon time of 2 hours 17 minutes and would have qualified for the games if he had citizenship to a country with a rich legacy of elite runners.
The team as has received worldwide support and lots of praise for working hard to make it to the Olympics. But, that’s about it. Their participation has put a spotlight on the crisis that is affecting millions of people, half of whom are children. And at a period when refugee statistics are at their most depressing since the idea of being a stateless person was incorporated into international law in 1951.
The 1951 refugee convention, “signed by 144 State parties, defines the term ‘refugee’ and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal obligations of States to protect them.”
Their spotlight is important, but will it be enough? As Paul Cohen of the New York Times put it, “Yes, everyone is moved by Team Refugees. Yet, it is unmoved by refugees.”
As politicians use refugees as scapegoats to win cheap political points, it is now our turn to try and do something about this crisis. When the politics of fear arrive at your doorstep, remember that nationalism is a fickle concept and no one chooses to be a refugee. In the words of Yusra to NBC News,
“All of us in the water, you will forget who you are, what you did in your life, and which country you are from… you are a swimmer, and whoever is next to you is a swimmer, too.”
By James Ndege and Mugwe Kiragu.
