Nansen Award

October 5, 2022

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently received the Nansen Refugee Award.

Key facts

Ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel received the UNHCR Nansen Award for providing asylum for refugees while in office.
While Merkel was the Chancellor in 2015 and 2016, Germany welcomed more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers, especially from Syria.
The UNHCR recognized Merkel’s determination to protect asylum seekers, helping them to survive and rebuild after facing war.
The Nansen Award committee also honoured four regional winners. These include a refugee support cacao cooperative in Costa Rica in the Americas, a volunteer refugee firefighting group in Mauritia in West Africa, humanitarian organization Meikse Myanmar that helps internally displaced people in Asia and the Pacific and an Iraqi gynaecologist known for providing medical and psychological aid to Yazidi girls and women in North Africa and Middle East.
The Nansen Awards will be bestowed to Merkel and other winners at a ceremony that will be organized in Geneva, Switzerland on October 10, 2022.
While Merkel will receive a cash prize of 150,000 USD, the regional winners will each receive 50,000 USD.

About Nansen Award

The Nansen Award is conferred every year by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to an individual, group or organization in recognition of their contribution towards aiding refugees, stateless or displaced people. It was created in 1954 in honour of the first United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Arctic explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen. The first to receive this award is Eleanor Roosevelt. Regional awards for the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are being conferred since 2017.

What is UNHCR?

The UNHCR is a UN agency involved in the protection of refugees and displaced and stateless communities. It is involved in their voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement in a foreign country.

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