VOA标准英语2008年-European Parliament Passes Stringent Immigratio

By Lisa Bryant
Paris
18 June 2008

The European parliament has passed tough new immigration guidelines that sparked protests on the part of human rights groups and some lawmakers. For VOA, Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.
　

European Parliament vote in Strasbourg, 18 Jun 2008

European governments had already approved the new immigration measures, but they still awaited passage by the European parliament. That happened Wednesday.

The guidelines allow the European Union's 27 members to hold illegal immigrants for up to 18 months in special detention¹ centers before deporting² them. That is considerably³ longer than current detention policies in most EU countries - but members are not required to adopt the longer limits.

Those expelled also face a five-year re-entry ban applicable for the entire bloc⁴. But governments must first give the immigrants a chance to leave the country voluntarily - and they are required to offer those detained free legal advice and other basic rights.

Those supporting the measures, including EU Commissioner⁵ Jacques Barrot, argue they safeguard rights for legal immigrants while setting common European standards for illegal ones.

Barrot says Europe does not want to be a closed fortress⁶. It will continue to welcome immigrants from elsewhere - just as it does now - and remain faithful to offering asylum⁷ to those needing it. But he says the European Union cannot accept illegal immigration, which he argues is not fair to anyone.

But critics like Nicolas Berger, director of Amnesty International's Brussels office, claim the new immigration guidelines are unfair.

"We have mainly got two concerns about this reform directive," Berger said. "One is the length of detention. People [can] get detained for one-and-a-half years and these are people who have not committed any crime."

Amnesty is also worried that the five-year re-entry ban could hurt those who truly need asylum.

"Europe is for us going in the wrong direction here quite a bit in terms of continuing this discourse⁸ of scapegoating⁹ immigrants, of putting immigrants and asylum seekers in the same box as criminals and connecting them to terrorism without looking at reality and individual cases," Berger said.

About eight million illegal immigrants reside in the European Union, according to the bloc's estimates. More than 200,000 were arrested in the first half of last year - but less than 90,000 were expelled.

1 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。

2 deporting   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的现在分词 )；举止

参考例句：

3 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

4 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

5 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

6 fortress   

n.堡垒，防御工事

参考例句：

• They made an attempt on a fortress.他们试图夺取这一要塞。
• The soldier scaled the wall of the fortress by turret.士兵通过塔车攀登上了要塞的城墙。

7 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。

8 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

9 scapegoating   

v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Washington's scapegoating of China could take the world to the brink of a very slippery slope. 华盛顿方面找中国作替罪羊，可能会把世界推向灾难性下滑的边缘。 来自互联网