Whether she is battling the heat or cold working in a refugee camp or engaged in an international conference call in her office, head of the UNHCR National Office in TT Miriam Aertker gives her all to the humanitarian work she has chosen as a career.

For over 14 years, Aertker has served in various capacities with the UNHCR in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. She has worked in Yemen, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia, Myanmar, and Greece. In 2019 she came to TT as a senior field co-ordinator with the Response for Venezuela (R4V) platform, a co-ordinating effort jointly led by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

She has worked closely with 26 refugee and migrant response plan partners across the Caribbean and with national platforms in Aruba, Curaçao, Guyana, TT and the Dominican Republic.

On June 1, she assumed her new position as head of the local UNHCR office.

“My role as head of office is to keep oversight of all operations – what we do at UNHCR and with our partners, to provide support and assist refugees and asylum seekers in TT,” Aertker told WMN.

In addition to her new duties, she will continue to oversee the R4V platform in the Caribbean together with sub-regional counterparts from IOM.

[caption id="attachment_896128" align="alignnone" width="683"] For over 14 years Miriam Aertker has served in various capacities with the UNHCR. On June 1, she assumed her new position as head of the TT UNHCR office. She says it’s important for the UNHCR to understand what the migrants need, what assistance the governments need, and what the gaps and the resources are. - Marvin Hamilton[/caption]

“When I first came to Trinidad it was quite an intense time,” because of the political and economic crisis that forced thousands of Venezuelans to leave their home to seek better opportunities in many Caribbean countries," Aertker said.

“We have national platforms (like R4V) in every country that co-ordinates and responds to migrant situations. You have UN agencies, NGOs, government counterparts on technical levels working together, and a lot of dialogue with the migrant communities.”

She said it is important for the UNHCR to understand what the migrants need, what assistance the governments need, and what the gaps and the resources are.

“Because there are lots of resources that are coming in. You have (migrants who are) doctors, nurses, teachers coming in and if they are properly managed it is a win/win situation for everyone.”

Aertker’s early days as a humanitarian worker was as a social worker at home in Germany.

In 2006 she moved to Cairo, Egypt to do a graduate diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo, and then to the UK to do a master’s degree in Refugee Studies from the University of East London.

[caption id="attachment_896104" align="alignnone" width="618"] Miriam Aertke evaluates a wreck of a smuggler's boat in Yemen in this undated photo. Photo courtesy UNHCR -[/caption]

“From there I just continue

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