Venezuelan boxer Eldric Sella, who represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo Games, on Tuesday said that he would move to Uruguay after being unable to return to Trinidad and Tobago, where he had been living.
Sella lasted only 67 seconds in his first Olympic fight, leading him to apologize for his loss and generating a wave of solidarity among Venezuelans who view him as an icon of the difficulties amid the country’s economic crisis.
The 24-year-old published a photograph on Instagram with the message: “Today I am blessed to start over in this country that without thinking twice opened the doors and gave me the keys to make this my new home... Thank you Uruguay.”
Photo: Reuters
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) late last month said that it had been seeking to help Sella and his family.
A UNHCR spokesman on Tuesday told reporters that Uruguay had accepted the agency’s petition to offer Sella resettlement, or the transfer of a refugee from an asylum country to another state and ultimately grant them permanent residence.
The Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it had agreed to resettle a Venezuelan citizen at the UNHCR’s request, but did not name Sella.
Sella’s father, Edward, said in an interview after the fight that Trinidad and Tobago would not allow him to return.
It was not immediately evident why he could not return.
The Venezuelan Ministry of information did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza last month said that Eldric Sella was “not a refugee” and could return to Venezuela.
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