Assault Allegations Aggravate EU Immigration Crisis

Assault Allegations Aggravate¹ EU Immigration Crisis

Europe's immigration crisis has taken a new turn after reports that New Year's attacks on women in Cologne and other cities were organized by immigrant groups. Swedish authorities now have to answer allegations that police covered up similar attacks on women in Sweden. While a wave of migrants from Northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia continues to arrive at Europe's door, governments struggle to stem anti-immigrant sentiment in the host countries.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Germany's eastern city of Leipzig to call for tolerance² in the wake of anti-immigrant protests organized by LEGIDA, a local offshoot of the German right-wing nationalist group PEGIDA. Anti-immigrant groups have long been protesting what they call the Islamization of the West, and reports of the New Year's Eve attacks on women in Cologne and other cities have boosted their cause.

"These Muslim refugees have begun a generalized terrorist attack - an attack against German women; against white, blonde women," said Tatjana Festerling, a leader of PEGIDA.

Xenophobic mobs were blamed for a series of attacks against Pakistani, Syrian and African men in Cologne Sunday night.

But many women came out to protest the violence.

"What PEGIDA does today makes me angry. We all know that PEGIDA, and hooligans who gathered today, couldn't care less about women's rights. They always come here to beat foreigners. For them, it's about doing propaganda, not fighting sexism," said Emily Michels, a member of Cologne Against Far-right.

Meanwhile, Swedish media reports accused the police of trying to cover up the fact that immigrants were behind most holiday attacks there. National police chief Dan Eliasson said Monday the allegations will be investigated.

"We have to get to the bottom of this. If there is any veracity³ to this information, it has to be remedied and we have to see if someone has done wrong,” said Eliasson.

German Chancellor⁴ Angela Merkel said the uncontrolled immigration flow has to be stemmed. 

"We have to intensify⁵ the fight against the causes that make people flee. And then we will be able, and that is what we want for this year, to noticeably reduce the number of refugees. That is clear. Because we also have the task to integrate them. That is what everyone talks about here  -- what would be the best integration⁶ method? And we know, since the terrible events that night in Cologne, that for integration we need the openness of the society, but the refugees also need to be willing to follow our rules and values as well," said Merkel.

For some people who grew up in a culture of chaos⁷ and violence, it may be the hardest part of the integration.

1 aggravate   

vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火

参考例句：

• Threats will only aggravate her.恐吓只能激怒她。
• He would only aggravate the injury by rubbing it.他揉擦伤口只会使伤势加重。

2 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

3 veracity   

n.诚实

参考例句：

• I can testify to this man's veracity and good character.我可以作证，此人诚实可靠品德良好。
• There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the evidence.没有理由怀疑证据的真实性。

4 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。

5 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

6 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。