AS IT IS 2015-09-25 Europe's Migrant Crisis Does Not Let Up

AS IT IS 2015-09-25 Europe's Migrant Crisis Does Not Let Up

As migrants and refugees continue to rush into Europe, European Union (EU) members held an emergency summit in Brussels.

They hope to agree on how to deal with this large movement of refugees and migrants into Europe. The refugees are coming from countries hurt by war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

News reports say the EU members pledged to better control European borders from mass migration¹.  

British Prime Minister David Cameron called on the EU to deport² migrants moving for economic reasons, like better jobs or health care. Refugees, on the other hand, are fleeing for their lives. Refugees cannot safely return home. Economic migrants can.

Mr. Cameron met with French President Francois Holland late Tuesday. Mr. Cameron’s office says the two “agreed that EU countries should do more to return migrants who don’t have a genuine claim for asylum³” back to their home countries.

The ministers adopted a quota⁴ plan Tuesday where each EU country would take refugees and migrants. The plan would distribute 120,000 refugees and migrants among the 28 EU nation states. Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania all strongly oppose the resettlement plan.

Slovakia’s prime minister said his country does not think the plan will work. He called the quota system, “irrational.”

The number of refugees could grow into the millions, not thousands, warned the European Union President Donald Tusk⁵.

Mr. Tusk is hosting the emergency summit. He said it is “critical” that European countries end their disagreement over the migrants. He said they need to agree on a plan, in his words, “in place of the arguments and the chaos⁶ we have witnessed.”  

Also at the meeting, the European interior ministers offered new aid to Turkey and other countries that are hosting refugees. 

Meanwhile, migrants continue to move through European countries toward a preferred final destination. For many, that is Germany or Austria.

But for Adnan Bazaa, that country is Sweden. He had made a month-long trip from Syria. This week he arrived in Sweden, hoping that a residence permit, money to live on, housing, and a job, would be waiting for him.

They were not.

Mr. Bazaa had heard from friends and family that the Nordic countries traditionally provide food, housing and employment to all. But that system is being tested to its limits. More than 1,000 people have applied⁷ for asylum each day for the past weeks in Sweden.

“It’s an escalating⁸ trend,” Mikael Ribbenvik told VOA. He is the operations manager for Sweden’s migration headquarters.

Some migrants have hoped to resettle in large urban areas. Mr. Ribbenvik says some migrants and refugees refuse to get off buses when the government wants to send them to rural parts of Sweden.

At the train station in Stockholm, Red Cross volunteers hand out food and provide first aid to migrants. One volunteer says most of the people coming through the station Monday decided⁹ to move to the neighboring country of Finland. They hear it is a shorter wait in Finland to get asylum. Mr. Bazaa decided that is where he will go as well.

Other Developments in the European Migrant Crisis

Hungary’s prime minister says a fence being built along the border with Croatia will be finished this weekend. Since Hungary finished its fence with Serbia last week, thousands of migrants a day have been entering Hungary from Croatia. Now, that border will be restricted, as well.

Nearly 240,000 migrants have passed through Hungary this year. 35,000 came across the Croatia border. That includes 4,500 just between midnight and 6 a.m. Wednesday. They are all trying to reach the Austrian border. Hungarian immigration officials said that since Friday, not one of them has asked for asylum in Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the world should share the burden of housing refugees and migrants. He repeated the idea that EU countries can help Greece protect its borders. Mr. Orban says member states should volunteer troops to keep migrants from coming to Greek shores, and the European continent.

In Austria, officials say about 5,000 refugees and migrants came to the main border crossing with Hungary by mid-afternoon Wednesday. That beats Tuesday’s total of 4,500 people.

Croatia shut out all but one of its border crossings with Serbia last week.  They want to block the migrant flow into their country. It had reached 44,000 people in a week. Serbia is busing migrants to Croatia’s border, rather than sending them to Hungary. Closing the border crossing has hit Serbia’s economy hard.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic sent a letter to EU officials Wednesday protesting Croatia’s actions. It said “with aggressive and unacceptable measures, Croatia has drastically struck our national and vital economic interests.” 

While Croatia did let trucks carrying food from Serbia cross the border Tuesday afternoon, Serbian officials say they want all cargo¹⁰ traffic resumed.

Poland says it will accept 7,000 refugees from Syria and Eritrea. They will gradually receive them in groups of 150 people in 2016 and 2017. While most will come from Italy and Greece, some 900 will come from Middle East refugee camps.

Words in This Story

deport – v; send someone back to their home country

genuine – adj; actual, real, or true

asylum – n; protection given by a government to someone who has left another country to escape being harmed

quota – n; official limit on a number or amount of people or things that are allowed

critical – adj; extremely important

chaos - n; complete lack of order

residence permit – n; a paper that allows a person to live and work in a country

Nordic – adj;  relating to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, or to the people who live there

escalating trend – n; a quickly moving direction of change

shore(s) – n;  the land along the edge of an area of water

1 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。

2 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

3 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。

4 quota   

n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额

参考例句：

• A restricted import quota was set for meat products.肉类产品设定了进口配额。
• He overfulfilled his production quota for two months running.他一连两个月超额完成生产指标。

5 tusk   

n.獠牙，长牙，象牙

参考例句：

• The wild boar had its tusk sunk deeply into a tree and howled desperately.野猪的獠牙陷在了树里，绝望地嗥叫着。
• A huge tusk decorated the wall of his study.他书房的墙上装饰着一支巨大的象牙。

6 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。

7 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

8 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。