美国国家公共电台 NPR Bangladesh Copes With Chaos: Rohingya Refugees Are 'Coming And Coming'

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

More than 400,000 Muslim-minority Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in just the past three weeks. This huge number of people is straining the capacity of aid agencies on the ground and of the Bangladesh government, and more refugees arrive each day. Many of them are staying in camps in and around the town of Cox's Bazar. Michael Sullivan sent this report.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE¹: On the road from Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh to the town of Tefnaf near the border with Myanmar, pandemonium² late this afternoon as government aid workers pulled up a semi-trailer to unload supplies to thousands of anxious, impatient and hungry refugees.

RAIHANUL ISLAM MIA: Rice, water, clothes, medicine - everything, 8 to till now.

SULLIVAN: From 8:30 in the morning until now?

MIA: Until now.

SULLIVAN: And now they're getting biscuits?

MIA: Yeah, biscuits.

SULLIVAN: That's Raihanul Islam Mia, a local government official tasked with supervising the distribution at this one site.

MIA: There are more than 10,000 people I've given relief today.

SULLIVAN: How many days have you been doing this?

MIA: Fifteen days.

SULLIVAN: Is it always chaotic³ like this?

MIA: Always, always. They need the food. And already each and every day new Rohingya is coming from Myanmar.

SULLIVAN: When will they stop, do you think, stop coming?

MIA: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It knows only Aung San Suu Kyi.

SULLIVAN: Only Aung San Suu Kyi knows, he says. She's the de facto head of Myanmar. Or maybe Myanmar's generals, he added, who've led the campaign against the Rohingya. Scenes like today's were common along the road - a steady stream of refugees walking alongside it, their meager⁴ belongings⁵ slung⁶ over their shoulders, looking not just for food but shelter. Satara Begum has neither. I found her squatting⁷ by the side of the road, looking lost, her 2-year-old daughter cradled in her arms.

SATARA BEGUM: (Foreign language spoken).

SULLIVAN: She came just this morning, she says, crossing the border from Myanmar and walking the rest of the way. She fled Myanmar last week, she says, after Myanmar's military came to her village, Longdon Kwachon.

BEGUM: (Foreign language spoken).

SULLIVAN: "Wednesday they burned our village, so we ran to another," she says. "But the next day they burned it, too, so we just kept going until we reached the river." But her husband and two of her children were killed, she says, along the way. Now it's just her and her daughter.

OK, it's starting to rain. You're standing⁸ here next to the side of the road with your daughter. What are you going to do for shelter tonight?

BEGUM: (Foreign language spoken).

SULLIVAN: "We'll stay somewhere around here," she says. "I don't know where. Maybe one of the families here," she says, pointing to the makeshift camp behind her, "will take us in." She doesn't sound very convinced.

The camp she's squatting in front of is one of dozens that have sprouted⁹ since the exodus¹⁰ began, a wretched place where women and children wash clothes in pools of fetid brown water. About 50 yards away, the International Organization for Migration¹¹ and other aid agencies and the Bangladesh government are trying to make things better. Measles¹², rubella and polio shots for the new arrivals - 350 shots on Sunday, says government health assistant Bibhu Gharan, 400 yesterday and tomorrow, he predicts...

BIBHU GHARAN: Five hundred. They're coming and coming, the refugee.

SULLIVAN: Do you think they'll stop coming?

GHARAN: Not stop.

SULLIVAN: Which is why health officials can't stop either. Cholera¹³ is another concern in camps like this one. And the sheer number of refugees, some aid officials say, is why they're being allowed access they wouldn't have had just months ago, Bangladesh realizing it just can't cope and hopes the international community does its part in helping¹⁴ the refugees not just in the short term, but in finding them permanent homes, too. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Cox's Bazar.

(SOUNDBITE OF HOMESHAKE SONG, "GIVE IT TO ME")

1 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。

2 pandemonium   

n.喧嚣，大混乱

参考例句：

• The whole lobby was a perfect pandemonium,and the din was terrific.整个门厅一片嘈杂，而且喧嚣刺耳。
• I had found Adlai unperturbed in the midst of pandemonium.我觉得艾德莱在一片大混乱中仍然镇定自若。

3 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。

4 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。

5 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

6 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

7 squatting   

v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。

参考例句：

• They ended up squatting in the empty houses on Oxford Road. 他们落得在牛津路偷住空房的境地。
• They've been squatting in an apartment for the past two years. 他们过去两年来一直擅自占用一套公寓。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

11 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。

12 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

13 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。