The refugee Nation

Amnesty International

Rio de Janeiro 2016. For the first time ever, a refugee team was going to compete in the Olympic Games. Ten athletes with no national team, flag or anthem to call their own. The whole world was looking at them, how could we make the world look at the millions they were representing?

The Refugee Nation is a symbolic nation for all those who were forced to leave their own countries. In partnership with refugees across the world, we created a flag and an anthem to represent the refugee athletes and all those brave people. Amnesty International turned the power of the Olympics into a big awareness opportunity.

OVER 5 BILLION IMPRESSIONS.

The flag was designed and made by Yara Said, an artist and Syrian refugee now living in Amsterdam. After graduating at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University, Yara had to leave her own country to search for a safer place to live.

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

In August 2016, for the first time ever, a refugee team was competing at the Rio Olympics 2016. Despite the IOC (International Olympic Committee) doesn’t allow the athletes to carry The Refugee Nation flag, two of them, Popole Misenga and Yolande Mabika, had the opportunity to embrace it. Even in an official game the flag was showed as a tribute to the refugee athletes.

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The Refugee Nation flag being embraced inside the two biggest refugee camps in the world,
Kakuma (Kenya) and Lesbos (Greece).

Refugee kids at the Jamtoli Rohingya Refugee Camp (Bangladesh), who have suffered so much, now being aid by Artolution and giving their special touch to the flag.

LEFT & CENTER: The Refugee Nation Flag being embraced by the Olympic refugee athletes and waved as the official refugees flag during the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, Canada.
RIGHT: During the Estoril Conferences 5th Edition, 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 their permanent collection.
Featured at the MoMA (New York) exhibition Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter. And at their permanent collection, next to the Rainbow flag.

At the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) exhibition Solution or Utopia? Design for Refugees.
Museu del Disseny (Barcelona) at the exhibition Design does. For better and for worse. An exhibition that draws the boundaries of how design gives shape to the global challenges of our society.
Featured at the Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 exhibition at The Design Museum (London).

We were invited by the U.S. Department of State for the event Making Media That Matters: Amplifying The Stories Of Refugees, to introduce the flag and the project. Featuring the Second Lady of the USA Jill Biden, and the whole creative team proudly holding the flag.

Celebrities showing support during the Oscars 2017 event. UTA Agent Keya Khayatian (left) who represents the iranian director Asghar Farhadi (right), who boycotted the Oscars due to travel ban.

Besides being a recognized symbol around the world, The Refugee Nation also works as a hub that connects refugees and organizations. And we created a powerful and simple website to be this hub to help refugees around the world: therefugeenation.org