Antonio Guterres, chosen as the new head of the United Nations refugee agency, is a former prime minister of Portugal. Mister Guterres served from nineteen ninety-six to two thousand two. He resigned after heavy losses by his Socialist Party in local elections.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Internet at WWW.51VOA.COM. I'm Gwen Outen.
Last week, Secretary General Kofi Annan nominated him to become the tenth U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Approval is required by the General Assembly in New York. Mister Guterres is to begin a three-year term on June fifteenth.
The U.N.H.C.R. has six thousand employees in one hundred fifteen countries. The agency has won two Nobel Peace Prizes. And it estimates it has helped more than fifty million people.
The main purpose is to protect the rights and security of refugees. Today, U.N. officials estimate that there are seventeen million refugees and others of concern to the agency, such as asylum seekers.
Antonio Guterres is fifty-six years old. He served in the Portuguese parliament from nineteen seventy-six to nineteen eighty-three. Two years later he returned to parliament and served for ten more years. During that time he started the Portuguese Refugee Council.
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