返回阿富汗的难民面临艰难的生活

AS IT IS 2015-06-06 Returning Afghan Refugees² Face a Difficult Life 返回阿富汗的难民面临艰难的生活

Many of the tens of thousands of people returning to Afghanistan from Pakistan have no jobs, no support and no home. International aid agencies say they and the government are unable to help many of them.

Hadeesa is one of those who has returned, along with her family. She is 14 years old, but she appears older. She cares for her mother, who is ill, and for her younger brother. He is abused at the place where he works. Her father and other family members together earn less than $40 a month. They must pay half of that to the owner of the house in which they live.

"We only eat bread with tea, and pay rent. We cannot afford anything else."

Hadeesa is one of more than 70,000 refugees who have returned to Afghanistan this year from Pakistan. Her mother says she does not know how they will survive.

"Because of migration³, our life has gone from bad to worse. In Pakistan, we were in trouble due to a lack of legal documents. Here, we have no money."

Pakistan began taking action against undocumented Afghan refugees after an attack on a school in which 150 people were killed, most of them children.

Mathew Graydon works at the International Organization of Migration (IOM.) He says aid agencies and the Afghan government were not prepared for the large increase in the number of people returning to the country.

“So this has caused a major strain on the resources of the government and IOM to provide assistance to these people.”

Many of the families that have returned to Afghanistan had been living in Pakistan for many years. Some of the children in those families were born in Pakistan. They have never been to Afghanistan. The families return to communities where they often do not know many people. Many arrive with just the clothes they are wearing.

Conflict deeply affects the areas with the most returnees, such as Kunhar and Kunduz provinces. Because of that, many refugees cannot go to their family villages. They become internally displaced⁴.

The lack of funding means only those most in need are given help by the government or aid agencies. The rest, like the family VOA spoke⁵ with, must find food and shelter by themselves.

For the refugee¹ family we spoke with, life in Pakistan was difficult. But it is much worse in Afghanistan. And they do not believe it will change.

Words in This Story

undocumented – adj. not having the official documents that are needed to enter, live in or work in a country legally

strain – n. a feeling of stress and worry that you have because you are trying to do too much or are dealing with a difficult problem

1 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

2 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

3 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

4 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。