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The Colombian activist Mayerlín Vergara Pérez, from the Renacer Foundation, is the recipient this year with the Nansen Prize, the highest distinction of the United Nations Agency for Refugees (Unhcr), thus recognizing their commitment in the fight against child sexual exploitation.
Vergara, also known as ‘Maye’, has worked for more than two decades rescuing child victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation networks, many of them refugees, the UNHCR highlighted in a statement.
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The organization highlighted that the also educator coordinates from Riohacha the activity on the Caribbean coast of a foundation that, in its 32 years of existence, has assisted more than 22,000 adolescent and child survivors of prostitution and other types of sexual and gender-based violence.
“People like ‘Maye’ show the best of being human. Their bravery and altruism in rescuing and protecting some of the most vulnerable children on the planet are simply heroic, ”said UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi when the award was announced.
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According to Grandi, “with his dedication he has saved the lives of hundreds of refugee children and given them hope for a better world.”
We meet girls who think that their bodies, so mistreated and abused, no longer belong to them
In the note, the winner recalled that sexual exploitation has a huge emotional, psychological and social impact on minors. “We come across girls who think that their bodies, so mistreated and abused, no longer belong to them,” she denounced.
Unhcr stressed that ‘Maye’ has at times risked her life during her mission, which often involves walking through remote communities in northeastern Colombia where human traffickers operate.
This Geneva-based agency noted that Vergara’s work was key for Colombia to pass two laws in 2009 that were a great step forward in the fight against child trafficking.
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The first of them imposed minimum sentences of fourteen years in prison for those convicted of this type of crime, while the second also punished the owners of establishments where they were committed.
The situation of refugees in Colombia, children and adults, has deteriorated in recent years, with the arrival since 2015 of around 1.7 million people from neighboring Venezuela, some of them in desperate situations that often make them easy prey for traffic networks. According to data from the Colombian authorities, the victims of these networks have increased by 23 percent in the last five years.
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Unhcr’s annual award, first awarded in 1954, takes its name from the Norwegian explorer and pioneer in the fight for refugee rights Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). In recent years, the team of volunteers that in Greece helped to address the 2016 refugee crisis and the Colombian organization Mariposas de Alas Nuevas, have achieved this, among others, for their assistance to displaced women.
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EFE
