Migrants at Risk of Dying as Cold Blankets Southeast Europe

 

LONDON — 

As the extreme weather grips southeast Europe, thousands of migrants are sleeping in empty warehouses¹ or abandoned buildings that provide shelter from the driving snow, but inside the temperatures are well below freezing.

“I have not seen this kind of place in my dreams. This situation is too much bad and the weather is too much cold,” said asylum² seeker Muhammad Yusuf Navid, who added that it is so cold he finds it impossible to sleep.

The Serbian government has urged all migrants to move to official camps. But aid groups say they are full.

Frostbite and death

The aid group Doctors Without Borders says many migrants have died from the cold. The group’s head of mission in Serbia, Stephane Moissaing, told VOA via Skype they are treating a range of health problems, including respiratory infections, an outbreak of scabies and body lice.

“In addition to that,” Moissaing said, “for the new arrivals who cross the border from Bulgaria mainly, we have in the last few days several cases of frostbite.”

About 100 migrants a day continue to arrive in Serbia, despite Hungary’s efforts to cut off the Balkan route by constructing border fences along the shared border.

Many come from Greece, where tens of thousands migrants remain stranded³.

Facing international criticism over conditions in the camps, authorities have moved hundreds of migrants into empty hotel rooms under a U.N.-sponsored program. A navy ship docked Wednesday at Lesbos Island to house 500 migrants during the cold weather.

European problem

Aid agencies have criticized the European Union for failing to help the stranded migrants. Speaking Wednesday in Malta, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for member states to implement⁴ the EU relocation plan.

“The problem of refugees cannot be left to Greece, to Italy, to Malta,” Junckker said. “It is a European problem and we need a European response of solidarity⁵.”

Meanwhile, Germany reported a sharp fall in the number of asylum seekers entering in 2016 to 280,000 people, compared with 890,000 the previous year.

1 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

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 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

4 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

5 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。