UN chief meets Team Refugees before leaving for Brazil Olympics

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday met with a group representing Team Refugees in his office before heading to Brazil for the opening of the Olympic Games, a UN spokesman said here.

"Team Refugees shows support for the Refugee Olympic Team, and it is a project supported jointly by UNICEF and UNHCR," Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing, referring to the UN Children's Fund and the UN refugee agency.

The Refugee Olympic Team is scheduled to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during Aug. 5-21, as independent Olympic participants.

Ten refugee athletes will act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis when they take part in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 this summer.

In March 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach declared that the committee would choose five to 10 refugees to compete at the Rio Olympics, in the context of the "worldwide refugee crisis", of which the European migrant crisis is a prominent part.

The athletes are expected to compete under the Olympic Flag and would be called "Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes" with the IOC country code ROA.

As part of an effort "to show solidarity with the world's refugees," UNHCR selected Ibrahim Al-Hussein, a Syrian refugee residing in Athens, Greece, to carry the Olympic flame through the Eleonas refugee and migrant camp in the city as part of the 2016 torch relay. Enditem