New video feature series launches to mark World Refugee Day

The first video feature in a five-part series sharing the stories of refugee athletes Farida Abaroge, Seyd Taha Ghafari, Omar Hassan, Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga and Seyfu Jamaal Tahir has been released to mark World Refugee Day (20 June). A new video feature will be published each week over the next five weeks as the athletes – who are targeting selection to the Athlete Refugee Team (ART) at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 – describe the journeys they have been on to get to this point. Part one features marathon runner Hassan.

For Omar Hassan, the emotion he experiences when completing a marathon holds deeper meaning. “Every time I finish a marathon, I cry,” says the 34-year-old, who ran for the Athlete Refugee Team at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. “If you ask me: ‘Why are you crying, Omar? You are at the finish line, you did very well’, I remember all the pain I’ve been through, all the work it took me to get to where I am, and the journey was tough. “People didn’t believe in me, and I had a lot of doubts. When you reach the finish line, it all comes out. “Running was therapy.” Hassan was born in Ethiopia and has since found refuge in Denmark. This is his journey. Farida Abaroge, middle and long distance running Farida Abaroge left Ethiopia, via Sudan. She spent seven days on the road from Sudan to Egypt, walking at night without food or water. After arriving in Egypt, her stomach reacted badly when she first ate food and she passed out. She found herself in hospital, with her stomach cut open. After struggling to close her stomach, she managed to flee to Libya, where she was put in prison twice. Two years after leaving Ethiopia, she found refuge in France. “I don’t know which one I will win – life, or achieving my childhood dream of becoming a champion? So far it is a war with life for me, despite arriving in France. I know I am free now, I have the freedom to do what I want, but life isn’t easy for all refugees.” Seyd Taha Ghafari, 10,000m Seyd Taha Ghafari fled Iran after fearing for his life. He had only a few minutes to spend with his family to say goodbye. The former marathon runner fled to the UK where he had to learn the language and find his way back into running. “I saw my family briefly. That was a very sad moment. You don’t only leave your family, you leave your friends and everything you’ve built, just like that.” Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga, half marathon and marathon Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga left a war-torn Congo to head to Uganda and then Kenya, where he took up running. He finished second in his first race in Kenya and now lives in Norway. “I was trying to participate in a race and I was given Tegla Loroupe’s contact and she said to me: ‘If you are a runner, who can stop you to run?’ I remember in 2018, Hellen Obiri told me: ‘Emmanuel, you know you can run better than this group of people.’ ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because how I see you, you are a focused man.’ Imagine, I started in a group and I couldn’t run, two months later I was faster than Obiri.” Seyfu Jamaal Tahir, half marathon and marathon Seyfu Jamaal Tahir embarked on a year-long journey fleeing Ethiopia in 2016 to find refuge in the UK. He travelled on dangerous roads from Sudan to Libya with limited access to food and water, before taking a boat to Italy. Once in the UK, he began running again through parkrun. “You eat two days, one time. Sometimes you don’t eat. When there is food, it’s one cup of pasta for 10 people.” Published by Sunday Onuchukwu Osunkwo  Email sundayonuchukwu1@gmail.com