UN announces regional winners of refugee awards

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) announced the regional winners of 2019 Nansen Refugee Award on Wednesday.

The awards go for individuals, groups and organizations who make an extraordinary effort to protect refugees, displaced and stateless people around the world.

The winners of the UN refugee awards have been chosen among more than 200 nominees from five different regions, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

One of this year's winners is 50-year-old Abeer Khreisha, introduced as "the mother of Syrians" because "she always answers the calls and does everything in her power for new comers from Syria to Jordan," according to the statement at UNHCR's website.

Asia's winner Alberto Cairo spent 30 years of his career to provide prosthetic limbs and to find jobs for injured Afghans, said the statement. He is a physiotherapist in Afghanistan and head of the International Committee of the Red Cross orthopedics program.

Evariste Mfaume is from Africa, and his efforts for bringing together divided communities at the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo made him the winner of this year in the continent.

Humanitarian Corridors, the award winner from Europe, is an organization which was established to create opportunities for particularly vulnerable refugees in Italy. It is well known as a ground-breaking cross-border initiative which helps the refugees start their new lives safely.

Bianka Rodriguez from El Salvador has been fighting for the rights of forcibly displaced LGBTI people in the country and has been chosen as the winner of the Americas.

The overall winner of the Nansen Refugee Award will be announced on Oct. 2 and take the prize at a ceremony in Geneva on Oct. 7.