英语杂谈：48 Asylum Debate Stirs Political Debate

A small corner shop in suburban¹ Sydney is an unlikely place to hear the horrors that force people from their homes and into the devious² and dangerous world of people smugglers.

Hassan Abotbeek fled Iraq and arrived in Australia by boat more than seven years ago. He shows the scars inflicted⁴ by Saddam Hussein's soldiers.
"They removed the kidney here. There is seven shots here." he said.
He tried to run away from the Iraqi army so they shot him in his leg too.

Abotbeek still has nightmares about perilous⁵ days spent on a leaky
fishing vessel⁶ that took him across the Timor Sea from Indonesia into Australia's northern waters.

"Very difficult because I came to boat and very dangerous because I do not know what time, what day I die," he said.

After being held at an immigration detention⁷ center, Abotbeek was granted refugee status. His family followed him to Australia, after paying smugglers a small fortune to bring them by boat from
Indonesia.

"Why they came is just because they have no other options," he said. "They were living a humiliated⁸, life full of oppression, prisons and killings⁹ in Iraq."

While thousands of people hope to, like Abotbeek, find safety in Australia, the issue of asylum¹⁰ seekers entering illegally is a divisive one
here. And this year, there has been a surge in the number of illegal migrants. More than 40 boats have been intercepted¹¹ trying to smuggle³ refugees into the country. The government says the increase is the result of conflicts in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But opposition¹² leader Malcolm Turnbull accuses the Labor¹³ government of losing control of the country's borders because it relaxed
immigration policies.

"This has been a catastrophic failure in government policy," said Turnbull.
Other conservative politicians warn that these unwanted arrivals could be carrying diseases and include extremists.

Under the previous conservative government, asylum seekers who
entered illegally were detained in isolated¹⁴ camps while their applications were processed. This could take years, causing human rights activists¹⁵ to accuse the government of inhumane treatment. In what has become a fevered debate, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says his approach to the surge in boatpeople is more humane¹⁶.

"They had kids behind razor wire, they had a range of different
interventions¹⁷ which were designed for a domestic political audience,
not in dealing¹⁸ in a manner which got the balance right between tough and hard-line on people smugglers on the one hand and being balanced and humane and fair in dealing with asylum seekers on the other," said Mr. Rudd.
Australia has a long history of helping¹⁹ those displaced by conflict and famine. More than half a million refugees have been resettled since the end of the Second World War. More than 10,000 people a year are granted asylum, after applying through international refugee organizations overseas.

But race riots in Sydney four years ago showed the ugly face of Australian nationalism. Human rights activists fear that the opposition's efforts to demonize asylum seekers may unleash²⁰ similar feelings.

That concern is a small one for many of the refugees.

Hassan Abotbeek's teenage son, Manhal, was rescued by the Australian navy from a sinking boat packed with asylum seekers.

"My brother as soon as he got on he was scared to get on because it was like a fisherman's boat. Length is ten meters, fives meters the width," he said. "Me and some other kids were sleeping next to the engine room because there was no space. It was packed with 400 people. We thought of Australia as paradise because compared to our country it is paradise."

Many others seeking asylum think the same and are willing to risk everything for the chance to start a new life in Australia.

Despite the debate over boatpeople, new figures show that the vast
majority of those seeking refugee status arrive not by sea but by plane.

 

1 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

2 devious   

adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的

参考例句：

• Susan is a devious person and we can't depend on her.苏姗是个狡猾的人，我们不能依赖她。
• He is a man who achieves success by devious means.他这个人通过不正当手段获取成功。

3 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

4 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

5 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

6 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

7 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

8 humiliated   

感到羞愧的

参考例句：

• Parents are humiliated if their children behave badly when guests are present. 子女在客人面前举止失当，父母也失体面。
• He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated. 他感到羞耻，丢尽了面子。

9 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

10 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。

11 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

15 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

17 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

18 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

19 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。

20 unleash   

vt.发泄，发出；解带子放开

参考例句：

• They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
• Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。