2007年VOA标准英语-UN Says More Than Four Million Iraqis Have Fled

By Meredith Buel
Washington
06 July 2007

The United Nations estimates there are now more than four million Iraqis who are either internally displaced or have fled the violence in their homeland to become refugees, mostly in neighboring states. Middle East analysts² say the crisis is continuing to grow and is straining services in Syria and Jordan, where most of the refugees now live. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details in this background report from Washington.

The United Nations says the magnitude of the crisis is staggering. More than two million Iraqis are believed to be displaced inside the country, and another 2.2 million are refugees in other nations.

Thousands of Iraqi refugees gather outside the offices of a U.N. refugee agency in Damascus, Syria, to register their names for obtaining a refugee status, Feb 2007

About 1.4 million refugees now live in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 80,000 in Egypt and about 200,000 in Persian Gulf³ countries.

The president of the Middle East Institute, Wendy Chamberlin, who is a former U.N. deputy high commissioner⁴ for refugees, says displaced Iraqis are overwhelming services in neighboring countries.

"There is a large population of Iraqis in Amman seeking refuge from the violence in their own country and it has an impact on the economy and the services of this small kingdom," said Chamberlin. "Likewise, in Syria, the influx⁵ of Iraqis has strained social services, hospitals, schools, etcetera."

The U.N. says the current exodus⁶ of Iraqis is the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement⁷ of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948.

Middle East analyst¹ Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New America Foundation, says the millions of displaced Iraqis are likely to further destabilize the region.

"You will hear Iraqis say we are being treated like Palestinians," said Rosen. "We are the new Palestinians. I believe in years to come we will see them too becoming more organized, mobilized and indeed militarized and I think the Iraq conflict will become the Middle East conflict quite soon."

Most of the Iraqis have settled in urban areas, and unlike other countries with large numbers of displaced citizens or refugees, no large camps or tent cities have been setup so far to house them.

Iraqis board a bus to a neighboring Syria, in central Baghdad, Iraq, 20 June 2007

While many Iraqis in the first wave of refugees had adequate financial resources to meet basic needs, aid agencies say the number of new arrivals who are unable to sustain their families is rapidly increasing.

Ken⁸ Bacon, the president of Refugees International, is critical of the U.S. reaction to the crisis.

"The American response to this I think has been pretty pathetic," said Bacon. "The reason is that I think it is very politically difficult for us to admit that one of the consequences of our intervention⁹ in Iraq is an exodus from the country because every refugee who leaves is a vote of no confidence against the American program."

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department announced a new program designed to resettle at least 7,000 Iraqis in the United States and officials say up to 25,000 could be accepted in the coming months.

However, Ken Bacon of Refugees International says the U.S. program has gotten off to a slow start.

"So far we have resettled about 130 Iraqi refugees this year," he said. "Our goal was to resettle by the end of the fiscal¹⁰ year, three months from now, September 30, was to resettle up to 7,000. We won't even come close. We will be lucky to get 1,000. We may get 2,000 by the end of this fiscal year. So the resettlement is going very slowly."

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration¹¹, Ellen Sauerbrey, says every individual seeking resettlement in the United States must undergo rigorous security screening to ensure that anyone wishing to harm Americans is not admitted.

She points out that the U.S. has given about $20 million to help the U.N. with aid for the refugees.

Sauerbrey says Iraqis who need resettlement are arriving in the United States and, she says, their numbers will increase sharply in the months ahead.

1 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

2 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• 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。

4 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

5 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

6 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

7 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

8 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

9 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

10 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

11 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。