VOA标准英语2009-Refugee Stand-Off Ends in Indonesia With Pro

By Katie Hamann
Jakarta
19 November 2009

After a month of negotiations¹ a group of Sri Lankan asylum² seekers has left an Australian boat and gone ashore³ in Indonesia. But, they will not remain in the country long. As an inducement to leave the ship, they were promised that if recognized as refugees they will be resettled within three months.

 
Sri Lankan refugees are helped to board an Australian Customs' life boat to detention⁴ center in Tanjung Pinang, on the Indonesian Island of Bintan, 13 Nov 2009
A rickety boat carrying would-be refugees from Sri Lanka was first spotted⁵ a month ago, heading toward Australia. An Australian customs vessel⁶ picked them up in Indonesian waters after their boat ran into trouble.

In the past, such migrants were often taken directly to Australia, but a political storm over a surge in refugee arrivals this year forced the Canberra government to send the boat to an Indonesian port. There, the passengers refused to go ashore.

On Wednesday, Indonesia confirmed that all 78 had left the ship, the Oceanic Viking, and had been transferred to an Australian-funded detention facility on Bintan island.

The immigration spokesman at Indonesia's Foreign Ministry⁷, Sujatmiko, says the 10 women and children on the boat will be housed separately in the camp, which is surrounded by barbed wire.

"This is the request from Australia that we are going to treat women and children separately. We are going to give the children a much better place than here," he said.

The group agreed to disembark after Australia promised they would wait no more than three months to be resettled should their asylum claims be recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner⁸ for Refugees.

The UNHCR already has declared some refugees. Australia says their resettlement claims will be decided⁹ within six weeks. The others will be processed within 12 weeks.

Some of the passengers have been in Indonesia several years. Recognized asylum seekers can spend as long as 10 years in Indonesia waiting to permanently¹⁰ resettle, but they can not work or leave the country while they wait.

Australian opposition¹¹ politicians are slamming the government's decision to negotiate with the Sri Lankans. Speaking to Fairfax Radio, Liberal Party member Tony Abbott said deal-making would only encourage more asylum seekers.

"Look they've got a magic carpet ride into Australia because they effectively hijacked¹² an Australian vessel and this is a complete fiasco, a catastrophe¹³ for our border protection, and it sends all the wrong messages to people smugglers and the people who might want to use people smugglers," said Abbott.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says no deals were made.

But the news about the refugees on the Oceanic Viking inspired more than 250 Sri Lankans aboard an Indonesian vessel at a port in West Java. They also refuse to disembark until their passage to Australia or another country is guaranteed.

A man calling himself Alex has become their spokesman.

"We are kind of struggling everyday with basic needs of life and medication and stuff. We are deprived of everything at the moment, however, those people on the Oceanic Viking have gotten everything they needed from the Australian government," he said.

Alex says many among his crew are also recognized refugees, and they do not want to wait any longer for resettlement.

"Our only request right now is to be treated equally and fairly as the 78 passengers who were on the Oceanic Viking," continued Alex. "We are refugees as well as them and we are asylum seekers as well as them. There are people on that boat who had UNHCR cards and there are people on this boat. There is 137 people who were registered with the UNHCR on our boat itself. We have the same criteria¹⁴ and the same needs as those 78 people. The only difference was is that they were on an Australian vessel."

This year, the number of boats smuggling¹⁵ would-be refugees into Australia has surged. The opposition say that is because Mr. Rudd has relaxed some rules on detaining migrants who enter illegally. The government, however, says it is because of conflicts in countries such as Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq.

 
Sujatmiko, a representative from the Indonesian Foreign Affairs department gives updates on Sri Lankan refugees onboard the Oceanic Viking, 28 Oct 2009
 
Mr. Rudd and Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have discussed the issue and last month, Mr. Rudd proposed a so-called Indonesia solution to the influx¹⁶ of refugees. This involves Australia funding facilities to house and process people in Indonesia.

But Sujatmiko at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry says the Oceanic Viking situation will not be repeated.

"This is, I think I should emphasize, this the first and the last," he said. "We will not entertain this kind of incident. I think this is really a very complicated issue and we have to make sure that in the future that we settle this issue very carefully between Indonesia and Australia."

For now it seems the human tide making its way across the Indian Ocean will not stop. At least four boats have been intercepted¹⁷ in or near Australian waters in the last week.

1 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

2 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。

3 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

4 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。

5 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

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 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

8 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。

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 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

11 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。

12 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

13 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

14 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

15 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。

16 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

17 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。