High Commissioner Filipo Grandi at the diplomatic level and works to facilitate long-term solutions for people displaced by large-scale crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. "This is an exceptional position reflecting an exceptional role she has played for us," said a UNHCR spokesman. Goodwill ambassadors UNHCR is also represented by a number of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors, who at present are: Barbara Hendricks (Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador) Cate Blanchett David Morrissey Neil Gaiman Yao Chen Julien Clerc George Dalaras Alessandro Gassman Khaled Hosseini Kristin Davis Adel Emam Ger Duany Rokia Traore Osvaldo Laport Jesús Vázquez Alek Wek Jung Woo-sung Praya Lundberg John Abraham Yusra Mardini Sheikha Rima al-Sabah Iskui Abalyan Atom Araullo Alphonso Davies Tahsan Rahman Khan Previous ambassadors include: Muazzez Ersoy Richard Burton Nazia Hassan James Mason Sophia Loren Controversies The 1994–1995 repatriation of Rohingyans According to some scholars, with time UNHCR left an initial preference for asylum and resettlement policies, tending to prefer repatriation measures of refugees instead. Sometimes, this might have led the agency's bureaucratic apparatus to adopt pathological behaviours. An example of the latter might be considered the handling of the 1995 Rohingyan crisis. At the time, thousands of Rohingyans were fleeing Burma (or Myanmar), seeking shelter in UNHCR camps in Bangladesh. According to some, UNHCR has been decisive in promoting the repatriation of refugees, although NGOs on the field and the UN were skeptical about better political and security conditions in Burma. Also, controversies arose on the methods with which the UNHCR staff was conducting surveys in the camps to establish if refugees were willing to move back to Burma or not. See also Against All Odds (video game) Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Fund, a scholarship program for refugees administered by UNHCR Dadaab Nansen International Office for Refugees Representative of the UNHCR and WFP, London United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in India United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in Cyprus United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East UniRef References Citations Sources Janmyr, Maja. 2016. “Precarity in Exile: The Legal Status of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon”. Refugee Survey Quarterly, no. 35 (November): 58–78. Gil Loescher, Alexander Betts and James Milner. UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the Twenty-First Century, Routledge. 2008. Alexander Betts. Protection by Persuasion: International Cooperation in the Refugee Regime, Cornell University Press. 2009. Gil Loescher. The UNHCR and World Politics: