Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has won the Nansen Award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for protecting thousands of refugees at the height of the crisis in Syria, the organization announced on Tuesday.
“By helping more than a million refugees to survive and rebuild their lives, Angela Merkel has shown great moral and political courage,” UN Refugee Agency High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement on Tuesday. release.
Under the leadership of the former foreign minister, who led the country between 2005 and 2021, Germany has received more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekersespecially in 2015 and 2016, when the conflict in Syria was at its height and Europe was experiencing one of the biggest immigration crises in history.
The prize, awarded annually, is named after Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen and is presented to an individual, group or organization that has gone above and beyond their duty to protect refugees, internally displaced persons or stateless persons.
Source: Observadora
