The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees will award former German Chancellor Angela Merkel the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for her services in protecting the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons, the website of the organization reported.

The UN recalled that the former head of the German cabinet received more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, during the escalation of the conflict in Syria and elsewhere. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised Merkel's efforts to protect human rights and humanitarian principles.