(ANSA-AFP) - GENEVA, 04 OTT - Former German chancellor Angela
Merkel on Tuesday won the United Nations refugee agency's
prestigious Nansen Award, receiving praise for her determination
to protect asylum seekers while in office. Pointing to the more
than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers welcomed by Germany
in 2015 and 2016, at the height of migrant crisis sparked
especially by the war in Syria, the UNHCR selection committee
hailed Merkel's "leadership, courage and compassion." At the
time, the woman who lead the German government for 16 years said
the situation "put our European values to the test as seldom
before. It was no more and no less than a humanitarian
imperative." UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi hailed Merkel's
determination to protect asylum seekers and to stand up for
human rights, humanitarian principles and international law. "By
helping more than a million refugees to survive and rebuild,
Angela Merkel displayed great moral and political courage," he
said in a statement. The selection committee highlighted that in
addition to protecting people forced to flee war, Merkel was the
driving force behind Germany's collective efforts to receive
them and help them integrate into society. The Nansen Award,
awarded annually, was created in 1954 in honour of the first UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, Norwegian Arctic explorer and
humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, to mark outstanding work on behalf
of refugees. Merkel will receive her award and the $150,000 in
prize money at a ceremony in Geneva on October 10, where four
regional winners will also be honoured. (ANSA-AFP).
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