Status: 10/10/2022 10:01 p.m
Former Chancellor Merkel dedicated the Nansen Prize for refugee policy to the helpers. It is thanks to the people in municipalities and communities that “we made it,” she said, looking ahead to 2015.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel has received the renowned Nansen Refugee Prize from the UNHCR refugee agency for her commitment to the Syrian crisis. Merkel accepted the award from the hands of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, during a ceremony in Geneva.
Grandi: “Brave and exemplary”
Grandi praised Merkel’s decision to take in more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers in Germany in 2015 and 2016. Merkel’s policy of helping the weakest was courageous and exemplary.
Merkel quoted Erich Kästner in her acceptance speech: “There is nothing good unless you do it.” At that time, many people in the municipalities and communities as well as many volunteers helped to overcome the challenges, said Merkel. “In my view, this honor is primarily due to the countless people who got down to work back then, to whom we have to thank for the fact that we managed the situation, that we made it,” said Merkel.
The Nansen Prize is the highest award from the UNHCR, which has been taking care of the needs of refugees for more than 70 years. The prize money, equivalent to around 152,000 euros, was shared equally between four regional winners who received awards at the same time, including a doctor in Iraq and a woman who has been supporting refugees in Costa Rica for more than 50 years.