Joint winners the Hellenic Rescue Team and Efi Latsoudi of PIKPA village on Lesvos presented with humanitarian award at ceremony in Geneva.
GENEVA – Greek volunteers Efi Latsoudi and Konstantinos Mitragas on behalf of the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT) tonight became the latest in a long line of distinguished everyday heroes to receive UNHCR’s prestigious annual Nansen Refugee Award.
Both winners of the UN Refugee Agency’s humanitarian prize helped thousands of refugees arriving on Greek shores during the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis – saving lives during treacherous sea crossings and providing a safe haven for the most vulnerable after they reached land.
The award recognizes Latsoudi and the HRT’s work and that of all volunteers in Greece and Europe in 2015, when Europe faced its biggest refugee crisis in decades, as over one million people arrived during the year. Over 850,000 people reached Greece by sea, with more than 500,000 of these arriving on the island of Lesvos alone.
read the whole article at UNCHR website. http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/10/57ee19bc4/greek-volunteers-receive-unhcr-nansen-refugee-award.html