VOA慢速英语2015 Migrants Are Dying Trying to Reach Europe

Migrants Are Dying Trying to Reach Europe

From VOA Learning English, this is In the News.

The European Union announced its intention to increase funding for search and rescue efforts at sea after an emergency meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Also, French President Francois Holland said he will seek a resolution at the United Nations. He said the resolution would authorize¹ the E.U. to destroy boats used by smugglers to take thousands of migrants from North Africa to Europe.

The E.U. officials were reacting to the sinking of a boat carrying migrants off the coast of Libya on April 19 drowning hundreds of people.

The United Nations refugee agency praised E.U. plans to increase funding for rescue efforts in the Mediterranean² Sea. The U.N. High Commission for Refugees said that the decision to increase rescue operations is an important first step “toward collective European action.” But, it said the main issue for refugee safety is access to asylum³ when fleeing violence from their countries.

European investigators⁴ are still trying to discover why a ship carrying migrants sunk off the Libyan coast on Sunday. Officials believe at least 800 migrants died when the wooden fishing boat sank. On the island of Malta on Thursday, the bodies of 24 people who died in the sinking were buried. They are the only bodies that have been found. The boat sank with the other migrants trapped inside. About 28 people survived the sinking. Most of them are from sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and Tunisia.

Italian police arrested the ship’s 27-year-old captain, who is from Tunisia. They say he mistakenly crashed his boat into a Portuguese⁵ ship that was trying to aid his ship. The captain was in court on Friday in the Italian city of Catania to hear the charges government lawyers plan to bring against him.

Thousands of migrants from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have already entered European countries this year after fleeing conflict and hardship. The International Organization for Migration⁶ says 1,727 migrants have died so far this year. More than 200,000 migrants made the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea in 2014. Officials say more than 3,200 died as they tried to escape poverty, war and repression⁷.

The number of migrant deaths has risen sharply in the past twelve months. Experts predict it will continue to increase unless actions are taken to stop the migrants from leaving their countries. The International Organization for Migration predicts the number of dead could reach 30,000 by the end of this year.

Dimitris Avramopoulos is the top EU migration official. Earlier this week, he said, “We will take action now. Europe is declaring war on smugglers.”

On Thursday, German Chancellor⁸ Angela Merkel said action must be taken to stop smugglers from turning the Mediterranean Sea into a graveyard⁹.

She said, “we must and will do everything to fight against traffickers who expose people to danger and death. We must also focus on why people are fleeing their homes. And we must do everything possible to keep people from continuing to die in the Mediterranean Sea, on our doorstep, in the most agonizing¹⁰ manner.

European Council President Donald Tusk¹¹ said saving the lives of innocent people is, in his words, “the number one priority for us.”

“But saving lives is not only about rescuing people at sea, it is also about fighting smugglers and preventing illegal migration flows. First we need to crack down on the human smugglers. We have to break up their networks and to undermine their business model," he said.

Last year, the EU ended a search and rescue program because of its cost. Officials also worried that it was encouraging more migrants to try to cross the Mediterranean. Some EU leaders have said the best way to keep migrants from drowning is to keep migrant boats from leaving Africa in the first place.

And that’s In the News, from VOA Learning English.

Words in This Story

on our doorstep – phrase to be very close to reaching something

crack down – phrase to punish people for something that is not permitted

undermine – v. to make something weaker or less effective in a secret or slow way

business model – n. the plan by which a business operates

1 authorize   

v.授权，委任；批准，认可

参考例句：

• He said that he needed to get his supervisor to authorize my refund.他说必须让主管人员批准我的退款。
• Only the President could authorize the use of the atomic bomb.只有总统才能授权使用原子弹。

2 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• 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。

3 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• 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。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

6 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。

7 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

8 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

9 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

10 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

11 tusk   

n.獠牙，长牙，象牙

参考例句：

• The wild boar had its tusk sunk deeply into a tree and howled desperately.野猪的獠牙陷在了树里，绝望地嗥叫着。
• A huge tusk decorated the wall of his study.他书房的墙上装饰着一支巨大的象牙。