Former Iraqi president Barham Salih addressing the UN General Assembly in New York in 2019. File photo: UN
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Former Iraqi President Barham Salih has assumed office as head of the UN refugee agency, marking the culmination of a decades-long career shaped by exile, opposition to dictatorship, and senior leadership roles in both the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad.
On December 18, former Iraqi president Barham Salih was elected to lead the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), becoming the first person from the Middle East to head the agency since the late 1970s. Approved by consensus by the UN General Assembly, Salih began his five-year term on Thursday.
“I am honoured to have been elected as the incoming United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,” Salih said. “As a former refugee, I know first-hand how protection and opportunity can change the course of a life.”
Salih was born on September 12, 1960, in Sulaimani. As a teenager, he was arrested twice by Iraq’s former Baath regime over his links to the Kurdish national movement, spending 43 days in detention before completing high school. He later fled to the United Kingdom to avoid further persecution.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and architecture from Cardiff University in 1983 and later obtained a PhD in statistics and computer applications in engineering in the UK.
Salih joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 1976 and went on to work in Europe, later becoming head of the party’s UK relations. In 1992, he served as a representative of the first Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet, before later heading the KRG’s foreign relations office in the United States.
From 2001 to 2004, Salih served as prime minister of the KRG’s Sulaimani administration, and later again as prime minister in the sixth KRG cabinet for two years.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he was appointed deputy prime minister of the Iraqi Interim Government in 2004 and later served as minister of planning in the Iraqi Transitional Government. Between 2006 and 2009, he held the post of deputy prime minister under the elected government led by Nouri al-Maliki.
Salih is also the founder of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS). He was elected Iraq’s eighth president on October 2, 2018, a largely ceremonial role he held until 2022.
His appointment to lead UNHCR brings his personal experience as a former refugee full circle, as he prepares to oversee the world’s largest refugee agency.
Arkan Ali contributed to this report from Sulaimani.
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