Olympics-All athletes in refugee team to join opening ceremony

FILE PHOTO: Paulo Amotun Lokoro, a refugee from South Sudan, trains for the Tokyo Olympic Games at a training centre in Ngong, in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya June 7, 2021. Picture taken June 7, 2021. REUTERS/Jackson Njehia/File Photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - All 29 athletes in the Olympic refugee team will march behind the Olympic flag at the Tokyo Games opening ceremony on Friday, an organiser said, to represent the more than 82 million displaced people across the globe.

The International Olympic Committee unveiled its first refugee team at the Rio 2016 Olympics to raise awareness of the issue as hundreds of thousands of people poured into Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere escaping conflict and poverty.