GENEVA: AMADE takes part in the Awards Ceremony for the Nansen Prize for refugees

 

Geneva, 3rd October 2016, AMADE takes part in the award ceremony of the Nansen Prize for Refugees.

As part of the partnership between AMADE and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for the protection of refugee children and isolated migrant children, AMADE was invited to the Nansen Prize for Refugees Ceremony, which is awarded in the presence of, Mr Filippo GRANDI, High Commissioner for Refugees.

This prize, named after Mr. Fridtjof NANSEN, the first High Commissioner for Refugees appointed by the League of Nations in 1921, is awarded annually to a person or organization as a reward for exceptional services rendered to the refugee cause. The international community owes it to Mr. NANSEN, the famous explorer and visionary, for his "Nansen passport", which was the first legal instrument used in the international protection of refugees.

The Nansen 2016 Prize was awarded to Mr Konstantinos MITRAGAS on behalf of the Hellenic Rescue Team (in Greek HRT) and Mrs Efi LATSOUDI from the "PIKPA Village", a community-run accommodation on the Greek island of Lesbos, for their tireless efforts on a voluntary basis during the 2015 refugee crisis on the Greek coast. In 2015, more than 850,000 people arrived in Greece by sea, including over 500,000 on the island of Lesbos alone.

The HRT has more than 2,000 volunteers who have been carrying out rescue missions in the Aegean Sea and the Greek mountains since 1978. In 2015, HRT teams (http://www.unhcr.org/en/news/stories/2016/ 9 / 57ce5bfba / hellenic-aid-laureate-distinction-nansen-2016-uide-refugies.html) carried out 1035 rescue operations, saving 2,500 lives and assisting more than 7,000 people to reach safety.

The PIKPA village, founded by Mrs Efi LATSOUDI, psychologist and human rights activist, (http://www.unhcr.org/en/news/stories/2016/9/57ce5bf0a/aide-personnes-vulnérables-lesbos- Efi-latsoudi-recoit-distinction-nansen.html) is a former holiday camp which now hosts refugees stranded on the island of Lesbos. By 2015, the PIKPA village was hosting up to 600 refugees a day, despite a capacity limit of 600. Nearly 30,000 refugees have passed through the PIKPA village since its creation in 2012.

AMADE's partnership with the UNHCR regarding access to education for Syrian refugee children through the Time to Act initiative also takes an active part in helping isolated migrant children through a project pertaining to the integrated care of unaccompanied migrants, implemented in collaboration with Terre des Hommes Italy.

NB: For photos see: http://www.unhcr.org/media-nansen-refugee-award-2016