Far from home, migrant children kick off own World Cup in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, March 19 : Less than 90 days before the FIFA World Cup which will be co-hosted by Mexico, migrants are playing their own soccer tournament in the capital as thousands weigh whether to continue their journey north, return home, or settle in the Latin American country.

Since late February, wearing blue jerseys and boots provided by the European Union, hundreds of migrant and refugee boys and girls living in shelters in Mexico City have been training on makeshift pitches for a tournament to be held in late April at a sports complex in the capital.

More important than the winner, the project “Goals for Inclusion,” funded by the EU, aims to use soccer to promote integration, protection and peaceful coexistence among migrant children — who are frequently exposed to violence, disease, family separation and xenophobia.

“Sport has no borders. The ball is round here or there,” said Joel Orta, a 26‑year‑old Venezuelan migrant whose son, Matías, is part of the initiative, which is backed by the Mexico City government, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

As Orta spoke, Matías, 8, tried to perform tricks with the ball and played with other migrant children in the courtyard of the shelter where they live, located in Tepito, one of Mexico City’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

Orta, who has been living in Mexico with his family for a year after fleeing the crisis in his native Venezuela, recalled that he himself took part last year in a soccer tournament promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where, he said, he learned that regardless of life’s ups and downs, one should “never lose hope.”

Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term in January, migrant