“儿童营救”体现了尼日利亚对非法贸易的打击

 

Children's Rescue Highlights Nigeria's Battle With Trafficking

“儿童营救”体现了尼日利亚对非法贸易的打击

 

Police in Nigeria have freed more than 100 children from human-smuggling¹ rings in recent days. The rescues highlight government efforts to fight the practice but show Nigeria still has a long way to go in its war on child-trafficking.

 

It was a refrigerated truck, normally used for shipping² frozen fish, that a police surveillance team stopped in Lagos Sunday. Officers said it was the demeanor³ of the driver and his two passengers that first tipped them off.

 

When they opened the cargo⁴ compartment⁵, they discovered 64 children packed inside. Most were young girls, some as young as one year old. None was older than 14.

 

Just two days before, police on Nigeria's border with Benin arrested four people caught smuggling 52 children into the country. And last week, officers raided an orphanage⁶ in Lagos on suspicions it was being used as a front for child-trafficking.

 

The head of UNICEF Nigeria's child protection program, Dr. Robert Limlim, says, though such practices are not new, they are being aggravated⁷ by both domestic and external factors.

 

Dr. Robert: The situation of child trafficking is an old phenomenon, which is being fueled by the questions of poverty, including the questions of unemployment and child labor⁸ that is rampant⁹ in some of the places in Nigeria. And of course, it's being fueled also by the trade around prostitution.

 

In 2003, a survey published by the government reported that in Nigeria around fifteen million children were involved in child labor. It said 40 percent were at risk of being trafficked either domestically or abroad.

 

That same year Nigeria responded to the growing problem by passing a law banning human trafficking and creating a special law-enforcement agency to combat it. But the newly formed National Agency for the Prohibition¹⁰ of Trafficking in Persons soon found the criminal activity was both deeply entrenched¹¹ and highly complex, says agency spokesman Orakwe Arinze.

 

Orakwe Arinze: Trafficking is very serious. Nigeria unfortunately has been said to be a route, a destination, a transit¹² country. Actually, it's unfortunate to say that Nigeria is the only country in the whole of Africa that has such a terrible remark being said about it.

 

Mr. Arinze says he is encouraged by the progress being made. But his agency, he says, is young and still has a very long way to go if it is to eradicate¹³ the practice entirely¹⁴. For that, he is counting on the help of the international community.

 

Mr. Arinze: If it's something, a crime, that originates in Nigeria, it becomes solely¹⁵ a Nigerian problem. But it's not solely a Nigerian problem. So we're asking destination countries to help us, because they are the terminal points of these cases of trafficking. Because the industries where our children, our youths, are being supplied are not here. They are supplied to these industries, child sex industries, pornographic industries, that exist in Europe.

 

A total of seventeen people were arrested in Nigeria in the last week alone, on suspicion of child trafficking.

 

Joe Bavier for VOA News, Abidjan.

 

注释：

rescue [5reskju:] vt. 援救

refrigerated [ri5fridVEreitid] adj. 冷冻的

surveillance [sE:5veilEns] n. 监督

Lagos [5lei^Cs] n. 拉多斯

tip off v. 告诫

compartment [kEm5pB:tmEnt] n. 间隔

orphanage [5C:fEnidV] n. 孤儿院

UNICEF [5ju:nisef]( United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) 联合国儿童基金会

phenomenon [fi5nCminEn] n. 现象

rampant [5rAmpEnt] adj. 猖獗的

prostitution [7prCsti5tju:FEn] n. 卖淫

entrenched [in5trentFd] adj. 不容易改的

1 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

2 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

3 demeanor   

n.行为；风度

参考例句：

• She is quiet in her demeanor.她举止文静。
• The old soldier never lost his military demeanor.那个老军人从来没有失去军人风度。

4 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。

5 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

6 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

7 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

8 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。

9 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

10 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。

11 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

12 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

13 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

14 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

15 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。