A team of up to 10 refugees could take part in the Rio Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave the plan the green light.
So far, 43 high-performance athletes, who are also refugees, have been identified as possibly being eligible for the Games, which get underway in Brazil on 5th August.
“The final number of athletes to make up this team depends on qualification criteria,” said IOC president Thomas Bach after a meeting of the body’s executive committee.
“The team would compete under the flag of the IOC.”
The IOC had already identified some athletes who fled their home countries and whose skills could be of a high enough standard to feature in the 2016 Olympics.
They were a Syrian swimmer based in Germany, a judo fighter from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Brazil and an Iranian taekwondo fighter training in Belgium.