新一波非洲移民冒生命危险涌向欧洲

New Wave of African Migrants Take to Deadly Ocean

A fisherman in Dakar, Senegal is getting ready to make a trip that may kill him and his passengers. Assane Diallo will travel more than 1,600 kilometers across the ocean to the Canary Islands. He expects to bring many people with him.

But he does not yet have enough gas to go the whole way. And his boat is made of wood and has a hole in the side.

Yet making the trip is worth the risk, he says. There are too few fish in the ocean near Dakar for him to earn the money he needs. He can no longer support his wife and children.

“It’s hard to come back and bring nothing home,” Diallo told the Reuters news service. “It hurts the heart, that’s why I want to leave.”

Diallo is part of a new group of migrants who are planning to make the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean. This group of migrants is aiming toward¹ Spain’s Canary Islands. Over 1,200 migrants have already arrived there this year. Most believe that, in time, they will be able to get to mainland² Europe and seek asylum³.

Ten years ago, many more migrants – up to 30,000 – were able to reach the Canary Islands by boat. But in the following years the numbers were reduced. Spanish officials blocked the coast, and overland paths through Niger and Libya became more popular.

Now the European Union is working hard to block paths to Europe through northern Africa. So migrants are once again aiming their boats for the Canary Islands – even though they will face huge waves, painful heat, and possible starvation⁴.

Izabella Cooper is a spokeswoman for the EU border agency⁵ Frontex. She says that managing the flow of migrants is like squeezing⁶ a balloon. “When one route⁷ closes, the flows increase on another.”

But there is a solution to the problem, she adds. Stop the root causes of migration⁸: wars and poverty⁹.

I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.

Words in This Story

route - n. a way to get from one place to another place

1 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

2 mainland   

n.大陆，本土

参考例句：

• The new bridge will link the island to the mainland.新的桥梁将把该岛与大陆连接在一起。
• Hong Kong's prosperity relies heavily on mainland.香港的繁荣在很大程度上依赖于大陆。

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 starvation   

n.饥饿，饿死

参考例句：

• Disease often follows on starvation because the body is weakened.疾病的产生往往是由于饥饿的缘故，因为身体很虚弱。
• The animals had died of starvation.动物因饥饿而死亡。

5 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

6 squeezing   

挤压； 轧水

参考例句：

• We were drying our clothes by squeezing. 我们把衣服拧干。
• He had a hard time squeezing through the crowd to get up to the platform. 他好不容易才挤到台前。

7 route   

n.路径，途径，路线；vt.确定路线，按规定路线发送

参考例句：

• On the way home, we took an indirect route.回家的路上，我们绕了一个大圈。
• The plane did not fly the usual commercial route.飞机没有沿通常的商业航线飞。

8 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。

9 poverty   

n.贫穷， 贫困， 贫乏， 缺少

参考例句：

• We must continue to war against poverty and disease.我们一定要继续同贫穷和疾病作斗争。
• He showed his poverty in his knowledge of agriculture.他表现出缺乏对农业知识的了解。