Africa-Press – Angola. Former German Chancellor Angela MerkeL won the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nansen Award for protecting thousands of refugees at the height of the Syrian crisis, the organization announced yesterday.
Each year, the prize – named after the Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen – is awarded to an individual, group or organization that has gone above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, internally displaced persons or stateless persons.
“Under the leadership of then Federal Chancellor Merkel, Germany received more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016 – at the height of the conflict in Syria and during deadly violence elsewhere,” the statement reads. of the UNHCR, which announces the awarding of the prize.
UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi highlighted that Merkel acted with “great morality” and showed “political courage” in allowing people, mainly from the Middle East, to enter Germany, in a context marked by conflicts such as Syria.
The agency recalls that the German appealed to a “humanitarian imperative” and to reject decisive nationalism in favor of closing borders or at least limiting to a minimum the migratory flow that arrived mainly in central Europe via the Balkan route.
“It was true leadership, appealing to our common humanity, standing firm against those who preached fear and discrimination. It showed what can be achieved when politicians take the right course of action and work to find solutions to the challenges of the world, instead of simply transferring the responsibility to others”, he pointed out.
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