Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi will in January become the new head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said late on Wednesday.
Grandi, 58, will replace Portuguese ex-premier Antonio Guterres, who has led UNHCR since 2005. His appointment must be endorsed by the UN in what is usually a formality.
Grandi was head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA from 2010 to 2014, after serving as its number two from 2005 to 2010.
He was also deputy envoy to the UN aid mission in Afghanistan and worked for UNHCR in Sudan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq.
Grandi will be handling the world’s worst ever refugee crisis - 60 million people worldwide who have been driven from their homes by wars and persecution, more than the 50 million people who were displaced during World War II.
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