时间:2019-02-12 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(二月)


英语课

Risking Death to Reach Safety in Europe


The Mediterranean 1 Sea was a deadliest stretch of water in 2011for refugees and migrants. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says more than 1500 people drowned or went missing while fleeing Africa for Europe.

UNHCR spokesperson Sybella Wilkes says the actual number of deaths may be much higher. She says the figure is just an estimate and many boats may have sunk and gone unreported.

“By all accounts it was a terrible year. Basically what happened was with the regimes collapsing 2 in Tunisia and Libya this reopened up routes to Europe. But it meant that some of the most vulnerable people in the world were basically taken in by smugglers and put in the most life threatening of situations,” she said.

The smugglers on the Mediterranean differ in their methods than those on the Gulf 3 of Aden. In the gulf, they often rob, kill or throw Ethiopian and Somali refugees overboard en route to Yemen. Wilkes explains what’s been happening on the Mediterranean.

“What we heard was that the smugglers were not actually going on the boats themselves. What they were doing was gathering 4 groups of refugees and migrants that wanted to travel and then they were obliging them to skipper the boats themselves. So, we saw in a number of situations these boats getting terribly lost, running out of water. In some cases, even the passengers turning on each other and in addition in unseaworthy vessels,” she said.

Seeking a new home

The UNHCR estimated more than 58,000 refugees and migrants from Africa arrived in Europe in 2011.

Wilkes said, “Of that number, the vast majority, about 56,000, arrived in Italy and the rest arrived in Greece and Malta by Sea. There was quite a high number that came across the land border to Greece, about 55,000 people.”

So far in 2012, UNHCR says three boats have attempted to make the crossing from Libya, despite high seas and bad weather. One of the boats, carrying 55 people, reported engine problems on January 14th and went missing. Since then, Libyan naval 5 officials say the bodies of 15 Somalis washed ashore 6 last week, including 12 women, two men and a baby girl.

“Certainly the most recent arrivals it’s been very high numbers of Somalis. According to our own guidelines, all of these people should automatically be considered to be refugees because of the current situation in Somalia. So these are clearly very, very vulnerable people. The majority are women and children trying to make this terrible journey,” said Wilkes.

Somalis in Libya tell UNHCR they face widespread discrimination. They and other Africans say reaching Europe is a necessity.

“For refugees from Somalia, from Eritrea, in the vast majority of cases it’s simply not an option for them to go back home. So, this is where they’re pursuing the option of applying for asylum 7 and hoping to find a new home,” she said.

Those who do arrive in Europe are met by UNHCR and European humanitarian 8 workers. The U.N. agency says it welcomes efforts by Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities to rescue boats in distress 9. It also calls on captains of ships in the Mediterranean to be on the lookout 10 for boats carrying refugees.



adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的
  • The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
  • Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。
压扁[平],毁坏,断裂
  • Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
  • The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂
  • The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
  • There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。
n.集会,聚会,聚集
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的
  • He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
  • The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸
  • The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前,孩子们就上岸了。
  • He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。
n.避难所,庇护所,避难
  • The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
  • Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者
  • She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业,并作了很大的贡献。
  • The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛
  • Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
  • Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。
n.注意,前途,瞭望台
  • You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
  • It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来,公司的前景可就不妙了。
学英语单词
accommodation and food service activities - isic
acer rubrums
arceate
Barany's sign
Bargain-purchase-price option
blow and vent system
Bortala
Bouvet Island
Busobuso
cellular content
chronic progressive acrocyanosis
classes of pollution
coppen
cyclical swing
dehydroretinal
del-operator
dietetic beverage
dwarf exotic species
EHP
eliana
exeception rate
family sepiidaes
fire distribution
flip-flop mechanism
flood-crest stage
foreign manufacture
free cantilever segmental concreting with suspended form-work
gamibasin
gang-plank
garage wine
general technical requirements
googlable
graphic science
hallan
heat-eliminating medium
hyalotrachyte
ill turn
imperfect consonant interval
inspectional
jet type dust collector
Join the club
Kaptenskog
Karaism
Krete
leading lady
license payment
liquid penetrant examination
m-phthalic acid
mactations
main fibers
man in the middle
metastructure
Mickleton
Mitsinjo
multibrand policy
musculi triceps surae
Nabnasset
nummen
off-location
ore wagon
oxidative breakdown product
Oxytropis globiflora
paraconiin
passive negativism
pedrails
pericardia
periphery blasting
petroleum locomotive
polyphalange
pulvis gummosus
reaudit
Richland Creek
sara teasdales
scutellation
sell us
sidereal hours
snipsnapsnorum
sobemoviral
space temperature variation
spring knockout
spring-form
statistical data analysis
subphylum cephalochordatas
supraspiracular line
sustainable use
swear white is white
task equivalence
taylerson
tchebychev's inequality
timber-faceds
trilateral crosssection
Triphysaria chinensis
Two-and-a-half International
two-to-one
two-unit system
unit-step
vile practice of bribery
vostro deposit
walk stick
woody plant
Zemlya Vil'cheka, Ostrov
zui