美国国家公共电台 NPR--Tunisian authorities target Black migrants in crackdown on sub-Saharan Africans

Tunisian authorities target Black migrants in crackdown on sub-Saharan Africans

Transcript¹

Authorities in Tunisia are targeting Black migrants in a crackdown on sub-Saharan Africans. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with NYU Abu Dhabi professor Monica Marks, who's been talking to affected² migrants.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In Tunisia, police are forcibly removing Black migrants from homeless encampments in the country's capital. It's the latest development in President Kais Saied's crackdown on migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Saied made anti-Black and xenophobic remarks back in February, which prompted mob violence and evictions. Black migrants, students, asylum-seekers are now living in fear. This as police have randomly³ detained and deported⁴ scores of people. For more on this, we turn to Monica Marks. She's a professor at NYU Abu Dhabi and has been following the situation in Tunisia. Good morning, Monica. And thanks for being on the program.

MONICA MARKS: Good morning. Thanks for covering this.

FADEL: So you've been speaking with some of the migrants in Tunis who've been evicted⁵ and are now living on the streets. What have they told you?

MARKS: They've told me that they fled anti-Black, racist⁶ pogroms, mob violence that included stabbings, thefts of their money and meager⁷ possessions, their phones, and forced evictions from their homes after President Kais Saied of Tunisia, who has become a new autocrat⁸ in the Arab Spring's first and only democracy, issued this February 21 speech that you mentioned.

FADEL: Yeah.

MARKS: In that speech, he argued that Black Africans were settler colonizing⁹ Tunisia. And he drew on a racist conspiracy¹⁰ theory that argued Europe and America are using Black Africans to colonize¹¹ Tunisia just like, they claim, those countries, those continents used Jews to colonize Palestine. So the president really elevated this racist language. And it rendered hundreds, if not thousands of Black people in Tunisia homeless overnight. So they've been really struggling.

FADEL: Why did the president invoke¹² this racist conspiracy theory, frankly¹³, that we've been seeing used by white supremacists in the West, the same type of language?

MARKS: That's right. It's a local version of the great replacement¹⁴ theory, probably a combination of two reasons. First, he's been on a march towards dictatorial¹⁵ repression¹⁶ since making a self-coup in which he closed the democratically elected parliament in July of 2021. And he's been looking for scapegoats¹⁷. So at the same time that he made this speech against Black Africans, he was also creating dozens of political prisoners in Tunisia. So he's been looking for scapegoats in the Tunisian political class and amongst the most vulnerable migrants and refugees in the country. I think the second reason is that he seems to honestly believe a lot of this stuff. He's a deeply conspiratorial¹⁸ thinker. He's very erratic¹⁹, very unstable²⁰ and esoteric in his thinking. And he tends to be most closely associated with very conspiratorial ideologues who get a lot of their ideas from the darkest corners of Facebook, which is very poorly monitored and regulated in Tunisia.

FADEL: Now, his racist comments caused international outcry, rebukes²¹. Amnesty International has called on the president to retract²² his comments, to stem the violence. Any sign that he'll backtrack, that he'll try to stop this?

MARKS: So fortunately, he hasn't made more of these pronouncements since the February 21 speech. And his government seems to be trying to backtrack on some of these comments, although they're not apologizing for them outright²³ or rolling back the policy. But vulnerable migrants and UNHCR-certified refugees are still being caught in the crossfire²⁴. There's a group of about a hundred that have been camping homeless for safety and protection in front of the United Nations' refugee agency's headquarters in Tunis. Nobody has been able to provide them with shelter. Landlords in Tunisia are afraid to rent to them because of the president's speech.

Tunisians and foreigners, many of them have been afraid to deliver food, tents and other essentials to these people because they're being stopped and interrogated²⁵ at police checkpoints. So we still see the Tunisian security apparatus²⁶ working to target not just the migrants and card carrying refugees, but anybody who's trying to help them. And we haven't seen a vocal²⁷ response against these policies yet from the IOM or UNHCR, the United Nations organizations, to the extent that these organizations are actually able to concretely help these people, which is why we saw an escalation²⁸ yesterday between this group of homeless people who are, frankly, desperate and out of options and the police.

FADEL: Monica Marks is a professor at NYU Abu Dhabi. Thank you, Monica.

MARKS: Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

4 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 evicted   

v.（依法从房屋里或土地上）驱逐，赶出( evict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• They had evicted their tenants for non-payment of rent. 他们赶走了未交房租的房客。

6 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

7 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

8 autocrat   

n.独裁者；专横的人

参考例句：

• He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家，也是个狡黠的独裁者。
• The nobles tried to limit the powers of the autocrat without success.贵族企图限制专制君主的权力,但没有成功。

9 colonizing   

v.开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The art of colonizing is no exception to the rule. 殖民的芸术是� 有特例的。 来自互联网
• A Lesson for Other Colonizing Nations. 其它殖民国家学习的教训。 来自互联网

10 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

11 colonize   

v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于

参考例句：

• Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
• Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。

12 invoke   

v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求

参考例句：

• Let us invoke the blessings of peace.让我们祈求和平之福。
• I hope I'll never have to invoke this clause and lodge a claim with you.我希望我永远不会使用这个条款向你们索赔。

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

14 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

15 dictatorial   

adj. 独裁的，专断的

参考例句：

• Her father is very dictatorial.她父亲很专横。
• For years the nation had been under the heel of a dictatorial regime.多年来这个国家一直在独裁政权的铁蹄下。

16 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。

17 scapegoats   

n.代人受过的人，替罪羊( scapegoat的名词复数 )v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They were made the scapegoats for the misfire of the program. 他们成了那个计划失败的替罪羊。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Only some of the guards and a minor hotel employee, chosen as scapegoats, were imprisoned. 只有一些保镖和那个旅馆的小职员当了替罪羊，被关进了监狱。 来自辞典例句

18 conspiratorial   

adj.阴谋的，阴谋者的

参考例句：

• She handed the note to me with a conspiratorial air. 她鬼鬼祟祟地把字条交给了我。 来自辞典例句
• It was enough to win a gap-toothed, conspiratorial grin. 这赢得对方咧嘴一笑。 来自互联网

19 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

20 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

21 rebukes   

责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• His industry rebukes me. 他的勤劳使我感到惭傀。
• The manager's rebukes in loud voice and stern expression have made the clerks gathered in the out office start with alarm. 老板声色俱厉的责备把聚集在办公室外的职员们吓坏了。

22 retract   

vt.缩回，撤回收回，取消

参考例句：

• The criminals should stop on the precipice, retract from the wrong path and not go any further.犯罪分子应当迷途知返，悬崖勒马，不要在错误的道路上继续走下去。
• I don't want to speak rashly now and later have to retract my statements.我不想现在说些轻率的话，然后又要收回自己说过的话。

23 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

24 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。

25 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。

27 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

28 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句