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Syrian-Lebanese champion of refugee rights wins Rafto Prize
OSLO, Sept 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Syrian-Lebanese economist Rouba Mhaissen won
Norway’s Rafto Prize on Thursday for her work defending the rights of Syrian
refugees, the Rafto Foundation said.
Mhaissen, 31, is the founder and director of SDAID, an organisation that
has since 2011 helped Syrians displaced by the war in their country and
living as refugees in Lebanon.
“Rouba Mhaissen has contributed locally to improving the lives of people
living as refugees in Lebanon in ways that protect their dignity and right to
self-determination,” the Rafto Foundation said in a statement.
Lebanon, which has four million inhabitants, says it has welcomed between
1.5 to 2 million Syrians, including one million listed as UN refugees, often
living in precarious conditions.
Mhaissen said she was “very happy to see that Syria and Syrian refugees
still have a place in the international community and are remembered.”
“The situation is very dire. Even after eight years, refugees here still do
not have access to their basic rights, whether it’s the right to mobility,
the right to education, the right to life,” she told broadcaster TV2.
“And today there are increasing pressures on refugees to return prematurely
even though the war in Syria is not over”.
In August, Amnesty International accused the country of “forcibly
deporting” nearly 2,500 Syrians refugees back to their war-torn homeland.
Mhaissen is “a vocal and courageous front figure, speaking out against
mounting pressure for the forced return of Syrian refugees, using insights
and documentation of the experiences of those that have returned,” the Rafto
Foundation said.
The $20,000 (18,270-euro) prize will be formally presented to her at a
ceremony in Bergen, in western Norway, on November 3.
Named after the late Norwegian human rights activist Thorolf Rafto, four
past winners of the prize (Aung San Suu Kyi, Jose Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-Jung
and Shirin Ebadi) went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which is also awarded
in Norway.
The Nobel laureate for 2019 will be announced on October 11.
BSS/AFP/RY/1848 hrs