VOA常速英语2007-UNHCR Says More People On the Move

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
01 October 2007

The U.N. High Commissioner¹ for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, is calling for new strategies and greater international commitment to deal with increasing numbers of people fleeing their homes. At the start of the UNHCR's annual refugee conference, Guterres told delegates protection and assistance must be given to people whether they are fleeing from persecution² or from poverty. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from the conference in Geneva.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres says he is worried about the increasing numbers of people that are fleeing from conflicts around the world. After several years of steady decline, he says the number of refugees worldwide is, once again, going up. Last year, he says nearly 10 million people sought asylum³ from war, violence and persecution.

He says the upward trend is continuing this year, provoked by crises such as Iraq and the Horn of Africa. For example, he notes Iraqis inside and outside their country make up the biggest single group of displaced. He says they represent the largest urban refugee group the organization has ever dealt with.

"The heavy burden the Syrian Arab Republic and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have borne to accommodate so many Iraqis, and its dramatic impact on the economy and society, underscore the pressing needs for greater international solidarity⁴. Their action places them on the list of very generous countries of the developing world-Pakistan, Iran, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Chad, Guinea, Zambia and Ecuador, to name just a few-which have hosted outsize numbers of refugees," he said.

Besides caring for refugees, the High Commissioner notes his agency also helps an estimated 20 million internally displaced people in 23 countries. In all, the UNHCR protects and assists nearly 33 million people worldwide.

He says forced displacement⁵ is not new. But, what is different today is, what he calls, the complexity⁶ of displacement. While many people are fleeing their homes in search of asylum, he says millions of others are forced to move because of extreme poverty, environmental degradation⁷ and climate change.

"What is new is that the various causes are ever more related, the people on the move harder to tell apart. Each cause contributes to the other," continued Guterres. "In Darfur, for instance, a Janjaweed attack on an African village may be motivated by the political crisis. But, the results resemble that of another emerging pattern, a water shortage which sets herders against farmers."

Guterres says there are international laws that protect people fleeing from persecution, but similar protection or assistance is not available for people who are hungry and cannot support their families.

He says some form of temporary shelter must be found for people who will face extreme deprivation⁸ if they are forced to return to the homes they fled.

1 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。

2 persecution   

n. 迫害,烦扰

参考例句：

• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
• Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。

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 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

5 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。

6 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

7 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

8 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。