美国国家公共电台 NPR Anti-Refugee Backlash In South Korea Targets Yemenis Fleeing War And Seeking Asylum

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

More than 500 refugees from war-torn Yemen have found themselves in an unlikely place - the tiny resort island of Jeju in South Korea. The Yemenis are hoping for asylum¹ to stay there. But as they wait, they're catching² backlash from South Koreans. NPR's Elise Hu has this story from Jeju.

ELISE HU, BYLINE³: On a docked fishing boat on Jeju's northwestern shore...

EBRAHIM QAID: Yeah, aboji.

HU: ...Ebrahim Qaid kind calls his Korean boss aboji, or dad. It's a term of endearment⁴ in Korean.

QAID: I love Korea. I love Korea, really.

HU: Qaid found work on this 29-ton boat welding floorboards and making fixes before the ship heads back out to sea. He's doing the kind of jobs most Koreans don't want.

QAID: I was student in Yemen. But because of the war, I need to work for - help my family in Yemen.

HU: He is one of the 561 Yemenis who arrived here since January, thanks to Jeju's policy of allowing foreign nationals to enter without having a visa in advance. They were fleeing a four-year war with no end in sight.

QAID: Because in Yemen, don't have war, don't have anything. Don't have light, don't have hospital.

HU: No lights?

QAID: No lights. For four years, don't have light.

HU: The ongoing⁵ civil war has taken out more than infrastructure⁶. It's killed thousands of civilians⁷. And Yemen is teetering on the brink⁸ of famine. Another Yemeni in Jeju, Omar al-Wahaishi, she, says young men are being forced to choose sides and become conscripts. To avoid that, he fled.

OMAR AL-WAHAISHI: We said, we refuse this kind of politics, that we will not go fight. We don't want to fight. And so if I go back to my city directly, I will be imprisoned⁹ or maybe executed. It's same fate because if I go to prison, I will not get out.

HU: He can't go home, but he and others may not get to stay, either.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Chanting in Korean).

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Korean).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Chanting in Korean).

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Korean).

HU: "Citizens come first. We want safety," crowds chanted in the streets of Seoul Saturday. Some 1,000 demonstrators showed up to rally against the influx¹⁰ of Yemenis. Their arrival threw South Korea into a national debate over its responsibility in the global migration¹¹ crisis.

CHRISTOPHER HAN: They came here without proper legal, you know, process.

HU: Demonstrator Christopher Han says too many foreigners are getting in.

HAN: We are in a position to help them. But the truth is that - the reality is that we have been used by them.

HU: Protesters held up signs saying get out and calling the Yemenis fake refugees. Han says his top concern is violence against locals.

HAN: But it is all about their different idea and belief system. I mean, they're Muslims - different idea and different belief system.

HU: On June 1, South Korean president Moon Jae-in's government ended the visa-free entrance policy for anyone from Yemen, effectively closing the border to Yemeni refugees. The ones already here are blocked from leaving Jeju Island. And half a million Koreans have signed a petition asking the Moon government to turn away refugees by changing policy.

SHARON YOON: I didn't expect Korea to welcome refugees with open arms, right?

HU: Sharon Yoon is a professor of Korean Studies at Seoul's Ehwa University. She's not surprised, as South Korea is 96 percent native Korean. Until 2007, the education system taught students it was ethnically¹² homogenous¹³, a single-blooded nation.

YOON: Yes, there is a lot of pushback. But civil society and xenophobia is not the whole picture. The sense that, like, there is a backlash of accepting refugees all over the world - and Korea is one of those countries.

HU: On Jeju, some Korean employers, like fishing boat owner Lee Shee-hyun, take a why-not attitude to giving Yemenis work.

LEE SHEE-HYUN: (Speaking Korean).

HU: "If they're willing to head out to sea, I'll keep employing them," he tells us.

Omar al-Wahaishi says he's encountered only kindness from Koreans he's met. For those who are less welcoming...

WAHAISHI: I want to give them the message that we are ordinary people. We want to live in peace. We want to live in - safe. And we don't want to cause any problem for anybody. So I hope they understand that we are a peaceful people.

HU: He's now 5,000 miles away from war. His fate, like the 500 others, is in the hands of the Korean government. Elise Hu, NPR News, Jeju, South Korea. 

1 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。

2 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

3 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。

4 endearment   

n.表示亲爱的行为

参考例句：

• This endearment indicated the highest degree of delight in the old cooper.这个称呼是老箍桶匠快乐到了极点的表示。
• To every endearment and attention he continued listless.对于每一种亲爱的表示和每一种的照顾，他一直漫不在意。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

8 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

9 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

10 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

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 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

13 homogenous   

adj.同类的，同质的，纯系的

参考例句：

• Japan is a wealthy,homogenous,developed nation with a stable political system.日本是一个富裕的同质型发达国家，政治体制稳定。
• My family is very homogenous and happy.我们这个家庭很和睦很幸福。