美国国家公共电台 NPR Rohingya Settle In For The Long Haul, Even As Bangladesh Wants Refugees To Go Home

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

We're going to spend the next few minutes hearing about 1 million Rohingya refugees who are living in camps in Bangladesh. They were in the news a lot of year ago when a huge flood of people left neighboring Myanmar, fleeing what the U.N. calls ethnic¹ cleansing² and others called genocide.

NPR's Jason Beaubien just got back from another visit to Bangladesh. Hi, Jason

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE³: Hello.

SHAPIRO: You've covered the story on and off for more than a year. You and I were sitting in the studio, and you told us stories about camps where people were packed into incredibly flimsy shelters made out of tarps and bamboo on muddy hillsides, where there was concern about mudslides...

BEAUBIEN: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: ...And people possibly being killed in monsoon⁴ rains. A year later, what's changed?

BEAUBIEN: Some things are still the same, but a lot has improved over the last year and a half. There are still some people living just in the most basic shelters - just a bamboo hut wrapped in plastic. But the good news is that a lot of people have started to move into better shelters that are laid out in rows. There are drainage ditches. They're in sturdier land.

There's this really amazing site on the outskirts⁵ of the Kutupalong camp. It almost looks like they're building the pyramids out in the desert.

MOSA ALSHALABI: So we are here creating a safe land for living and slope stabilization⁶ because that soil is not safe at all. All these houses - when it rains, the whole soil will be washed away.

BEAUBIEN: That's Mosa Alshalabi. He's an engineer with the U.N.'s World Food Program. He says over the last few weeks, these crews have been literally⁷ moving mountains.

ALSHALABI: For example, that road wasn't here. That was a mountain. We cut that mountain to make a flat platform safe for living.

SHAPIRO: Like an actual mountain, or just a pile of dirt?

BEAUBIEN: I mean, these are not actual, actual mountains, but they're really big hills.

SHAPIRO: OK.

BEAUBIEN: And they're all made out of sand. And they are just out there - all of these workers - by hand with shovels⁸ and grain bags, moving the sand, making it completely level, terracing these hillsides. The WFP is paying them $5 a day. Alshalabi said on this day, he had a thousand workers.

ALSHALABI: We construct road. We construct bridges. We're cutting hills. We stabilize⁹ the slopes. And we make a difference for the whole community in the area here.

SHAPIRO: OK, so real infrastructure¹⁰ improvements in some parts of the camp, but you said some people are still living in the kind of squalor that they were living in a year ago.

BEAUBIEN: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In some of the older parts of the camp, it's still really chaotic¹¹. They're packed in. It's really tight. One neighbor can actually reach out and touch their neighbor's hut next door.

There's this one area called the Balukali camp. And I saw workers that were trying to install solar street lamps. But they couldn't find enough open space in between the huts to actually put the concrete footings in for these lamp poles.

I talked this one guy. He's a 40-year-old guy. His name is Noor Kamal. He arrived in Balukali, along with almost everybody else a year and a half ago, fleeing from these militias¹² that were torching their villages back in Myanmar.

NOOR KAMAL: (Foreign language spoken).

BEAUBIEN: What he's saying there is that he would like to go back to Myanmar. But he says he thinks it could be years before he's able to do so.

SHAPIRO: There were plans to bring people back that it seems like went nowhere. And now it sounds like people are really digging in in Bangladesh. What would be required for people to be able to return?

BEAUBIEN: You know what's really interesting is the other trips that I went on, everybody said, look, we want to go back to our farms. And we want three conditions - we want make sure it's safe. We want Myanmar to actually recognize us as citizens, which they have not been doing. They don't give them passports. They don't recognize them. They're basically a stateless people. And they wanted their land back.

But now, people are saying they want one other thing - they want justice. They want the people who carried out these attacks to be brought before some sort of criminal tribunal which doesn't even exist. And Myanmar denies that it happened. That probably is just going to be one more impediment for finding a solution to this and finding a way for them to get home.

SHAPIRO: Myanmar seems very unlikely to meet those demands. So what would a long-term future in this camp look like for the Rohingya?

BEAUBIEN: I mean, it's a huge logistical challenge. You've got nearly a million people. One of these camps has 650,000 people, making it the largest refugee camp in the world. They're entirely¹³ - almost entirely - dependent on international food aid to survive. It's been an environmental disaster with all the vegetation and trees cut down for firewood. So humanitarian¹⁴ groups are trying to look long-term.

And one of the main things that I noticed this time was that they're passing out gas stoves to people. However, the logistics of actually getting canisters of gas to every one of these households is another huge challenge in a place where the roads aren't good. The World Food Program is also switching over from passing out big bags of rice to trying to have retail¹⁵ stores where people get electronic cards and they're able to go shopping.

So there's this movement from the humanitarians¹⁶ to try to make this a more sustainable, more smooth operation to sustain this huge number of people basically living in a nature preserve.

SHAPIRO: So tell me about daily life in the middle of all this. How are people actually, like, spending their time and raising their families?

BEAUBIEN: They're going about their daily lives. There are health clinics. There are learning centers, which are basically schools. There are markets. There are people going off to work. You've got some playgrounds that are popping up.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN PLAYING)

BEAUBIEN: Real playgrounds, with, like, metal slides and swing sets. And one of the things that really struck me was a lot of people are planting gardens. And people are getting a lot of satisfaction out of that.

FATIMA KATU: (Through interpreter) I'm very happy here.

BEAUBIEN: This is 40-year-old Fatima Katu. And she recently moved with her husband and six children to a new shelter in these areas that those day laborers¹⁷ have been constructing. She's planted squash beans, chili¹⁸.

KATU: (Through interpreter) We have more space here. And now it feels like home.

BEAUBIEN: She says her family had a much larger farm back in Myanmar. But at least here, she says, being able to grow things makes it feel like she's not just entirely dependent on these international agencies to provide them with food.

SHAPIRO: Jason, you and I have both been to refugee camps that have existed for decades or generations. Does that seem to be the direction that this Rohingya camp in Bangladesh is moving in?

BEAUBIEN: It certainly feels that way, yet the Bangladeshi government continues to insist day in and day out this is not going to be permanent. We're going to find some other solution. We're going to move them somewhere else. Or we're going to get them to go back to Myanmar. There was a campaign last year. They were offering free transportation, moving benefits for anyone who wanted to go. And they had absolutely zero takers among the Rohingya refugees.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Jason Beaubien just back from Bangladesh. Thanks so much.

BEAUBIEN: It's good to be back.

1 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

2 cleansing   

n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词

参考例句：

• medicated cleansing pads for sensitive skin 敏感皮肤药物清洗棉
• Soap is not the only cleansing agent. 肥皂并不是唯一的清洁剂。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。

5 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

6 Stabilization   

稳定化

参考例句：

• The position of barycentre on plane directly impacts the stabilization and manipulation of plane. 飞机重心位置直接影响飞机的稳定和操纵特性。
• With the higher olefins, stabilization of the energetic intermediates occurs more easily. 在较高的烯烃情况下，高能的中间物稳定作用更易出现。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 shovels   

n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份

参考例句：

• workmen with picks and shovels 手拿镐铲的工人
• In the spring, we plunge shovels into the garden plot, turn under the dark compost. 春天，我们用铁锨翻开园子里黑油油的沃土。 来自辞典例句

9 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

10 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

11 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

12 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

13 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

14 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• 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。

15 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

16 humanitarians   

n.慈善家( humanitarian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finally, humanitarians saw it as a means of helping to feed the hungry of the world. 人道主义者把这一计划看成是为世界上那些忍饥挨饿的人提供粮食的一项措施。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• All humanitarians fought against slavery. 所有人道主义者都为反对奴隶制而斗争过。 来自互联网

17 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

18 chili   

n.辣椒

参考例句：

• He helped himself to another two small spoonfuls of chili oil.他自己下手又加了两小勺辣椒油。
• It has chocolate,chili,and other spices.有巧克力粉，辣椒，和其他的调味品。