Tuesday, October 4, 2022 – 10:32 PM
GENEVA, 4th October, 2020 (WAM) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced today the award of the Nansen Prize for Refugees to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after Germany received under her leadership more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers between 2015 and 2016.
The award is given to an individual, group or organization working to protect refugees, internally displaced persons or stateless persons
The Nansen Prize for Refugees, which Merkel will receive at a ceremony in Geneva on October 10, bears the name of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. It was established in 1954 to celebrate his memory.
Merkel said what Germany did under her leadership towards refugees was nothing more than a humanitarian necessity and called on her German colleagues to renounce divisive nationalism, urging them instead to be “self-confident, sympathetic and open.”
In the statement, Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, praised the determination of former German Chancellor Merkel to protect asylum seekers and defend human rights, humanitarian principles and international law by helping more than a million refugees to survive and rebuild, as she showed moral and political courage. big .
For its part, the award selection committee said it recognized the leadership, courage and compassion of former German Chancellor Merkel in ensuring the protection of hundreds of thousands of desperate people as well as her efforts to find viable long-term solutions for those seeking safety and was the driving force behind Germany’s collective efforts to welcome them and help them integrate. In the community .
Jeff / Wm
Zakaria Mohieldin