The refugee Nation

Amnesty International

Rio de Janeiro, 2016. For the first time in history, a refugee team competed in the Olympic Games. Ten athletes with no national team, no flag, and no anthem to call their own. The world was watching them. But how could we make it see the millions they represent?

The Refugee Nation is a symbolic nation for people forced to flee their homes. In partnership with refugees around the world, we created a flag and an anthem to represent the refugee athletes and the millions of displaced people behind them. With Amnesty International, we turned the power of the Olympic Games into a global awareness platform.

OVER 5 BILLION IMPRESSIONS.

The flag was designed by Yara Said, an artist and Syrian refugee now living in Amsterdam. After graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University, Yara was forced to leave Syria in search of a safer place to live.

Our anthem was composed by Moutaz Arian, a composer and Syrian refugee now living in Istanbul. Three years earlier, he was studying music at the University of Damascus. After being threatened with conscription into Assad’s army, Moutaz had no choice but to flee his country.

In August 2016, a refugee team competed at the Rio Olympics for the first time in history. Although the IOC (International Olympic Committee) did not allow athletes to carry the Refugee Nation flag, two of them — Popole Misenga and Yolande Mabika — had the opportunity to embrace it. Even during official matches, the flag appeared as a tribute to refugee athletes.

The Refugee Nation flag embraced inside two of the largest refugee camps in the world: Kakuma (Kenya) and Lesbos (Greece).

Refugee children at the Jamtoli Rohingya Refugee Camp (Bangladesh), many of whom have endured immense hardship, were supported by Artolution and added their own touch to the flag.

LEFT & CENTER: The Refugee Nation flag embraced by the Olympic refugee athletes and waved during the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, Canada.

RIGHT: During the 5th edition of the Estoril Conferences — with Oliver Stone and Edward Snowden among the speakers — the flag was officially raised at the Estoril Congress Center in Portugal.

The flag at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) as part of its permanent collection. It was also featured in MoMA’s (New York) exhibition Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter, and included in its permanent collection next to the Rainbow Flag.

At the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) exhibition Solution or Utopia? Design for Refugees. At the Museu del Disseny (Barcelona) exhibition Design Does. For Better and for Worse, which explores how design shapes global challenges. And at the Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 exhibition at the Design Museum in London.

We were invited by the U.S. Department of State to present the flag and the project at the event Making Media That Matters: Amplifying the Stories of Refugees. The event featured the Second Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, and the entire creative team proudly holding the flag.

Celebrities also showed their support during the 2017 Oscars. UTA agent Keya Khayatian (left), who represents Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (right), who boycotted the Oscars due to the travel ban.

Besides becoming a recognized symbol around the world, The Refugee Nation also works as a hub connecting refugees and organizations. To support this mission, we created a simple and powerful website to help refugees connect with the help they need: therefugeenation.org