{"id":342,"date":"2016-09-06T16:11:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T20:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.internationaldiplomat.ca\/?p=342"},"modified":"2016-09-06T16:11:51","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T20:11:51","slug":"greek-volunteers-awarded-top-un-humanitarian-honour-for-efforts-with-migrants-and-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"GREEK VOLUNTERS AWARDED TOP UN HUMANITARIAN HOMOUR FOR EFFORTS WITH MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES"},"content":{"rendered":"

6 September 2016 \u2013 A Greek human rights activist and a Greek volunteer rescue team \u2013 Efi Latsoudi and the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT) \u2013 have been jointly awarded this year\u2019sNansen Refugee Award<\/a>\u00a0for their efforts to aid refugees arriving in Greece during 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict and persecution last year made the desperate bid to reach Europe in search of safety, many risking their lives in unsea worthy boats and dinghies, in a journey which all too often proved insurmountable,\u201d the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said in a\u00a0news release<\/a>\u00a0on the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the Hellenic Rescue Team and\u00a0Efi Latsoudi<\/a>\u00a0refused to stand by as they witnessed the dramatic humanitarian situation unfolding on their shores, and are fully deserving of the\u00a0Nansen Refugee Award<\/a>,\u201d Mr. Grandi added. \u201cTheir efforts characterize the massive public response to the refugee and migrant emergency in Greece and across Europe, in which thousands of people stood in solidarity with those forced to flee, and the humanity and generosity of communities around the world who open their hearts and homes to refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR<\/a>), since 2007, Greece has been challenged by the arrival of a large number of\u00a0refugees and migrants<\/a>, but in 2015 sea arrivals escalated to an emergency. On the island of Lesvos alone, numbers topped 500,000 last year. In October 2015, arrivals peaked at more than 10,000 per day, as conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq continued to uproot people from their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many refugees, the heroic humanitarian efforts of Greek volunteers in 2015 went well beyond pulling survivors from the seas, they helped them to take the first steps towards a normal life,\u201d UNHCR noted in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring 2015 the HRT conducted round-the-clock operations to save refugees and migrants in distress at sea and Latsoudi showed compassion and care for the most vulnerable refugees arriving on the island of Lesvos through her work at PIKPA village,\u201d the UN agency added.<\/p>\n

The Nansen Refugee Award recognises outstanding service to the cause of refugees and displaced people, and was first handed out in 1954 \u2013 Eleanor Roosevelt was its first recipient and other awardees since then include former refugee\u00a0Hawa Aden Mohamed<\/a>\u00a0of Somalia and\u00a0Sister Ang\u00e9lique Namaika<\/a>\u00a0of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is named after Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the first High Commissioner for Refugees at the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 September 2016 \u2013 A Greek human rights activist and a Greek volunteer rescue team \u2013 Efi Latsoudi and the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT) \u2013 have been jointly awarded this year\u2019sNansen Refugee Award\u00a0for their efforts to aid refugees arriving in Greece during 2015. \u201cHundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict and persecution last year made the desperate bid to reach Europe in search of safety, many risking their lives in unsea worthy boats and dinghies, in a journey which all too often proved insurmountable,\u201d the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-humanitarians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reseauhem.mx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}