新聞英文(16)-Week Three: Europe's refugee

Europe's refugee problem simmers despite collective effort to end it

By Geir Moulson, AP
August 29, 2016, 12:33 am TWN

BERLIN--Faced with more than 1 million migrants flooding across the Mediterranean last year, European nations tightened border controls, set up naval patrols to stop smugglers, negotiated an agreement with Turkey to limit the numbers crossing, shut the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands, and tried to speed up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.

Yet many issues still remain.

European nations continue to squabble about whether, and how, to share the newcomers between them and the issues that drove refugees to Europe in the first place— such as Syria's unrelenting war— are unresolved.

Overall, 2,901 people have died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016, most along the dangerous central route to Italy— a 37 percent increase over last year's first half, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Here's where things stand in key countries.

Turkey
Turkey is hosting some 3 million refugees, including more than 2.7 million Syrians. Most refugees there don't get government support, but the agreement with the EU calls for the bloc to provide up to 6 billion euros (US$6.8 billion) to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.

The deal also provides for one Syrian refugee from Turkey to be relocated to EU countries for each Syrian who arrives illegally in Greece and is sent back. So far only 1,152 have been resettled under the program— more than half of them to Germany and Sweden.

Greece
The numbers of migrants arriving in Greece have dropped dramatically since the March agreement with Turkey, but several thousand a month still make the journey, some 160,000 in the first half of this year.

Over 58,000 people remain stuck in the financially struggling country, most hoping to continue north to nations like Germany or Sweden. The majority have applied for asylum, hoping to be relocated among EU nations— but the program is moving at snail's pace amid fierce resistance from eastern and central European countries.

So far, only around 4,400 people have been relocated from southern Europe under a plan that's supposed to see 160,000 moved over two years through September 2017. Yet there's little Brussels can do to force any nations to comply.

New arrivals now are insignificant compared to 2015, but they have increased since the July 15 attempted coup in Turkey, topping 2,300 in the first three weeks of August. This is straining resources on the eastern Aegean Sea islands and the government has promised to build more housing on the mainland. Fears are also growing that the EU-Turkey deal might fall apart as Ankara presses for the 28-nation bloc to allow its citizens visa-free entry.

 http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2016/08/29/476852/p1/Europe's-refugee.htm 

Structure of the Lead：
WHO- European nations
WHEN- last year
WHAT- to limit the numbers crossing
WHY- faced with more than 1 million migrants flooding across the Mediterranean
WHERE- not given
HOW- tightened border controls, set up naval patrols to stop smugglers, negotiated an agreement with Turkey, shut the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands, and tried to speed up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers

Keywords：
1. naval：海軍的
2. patrol：巡邏
3. smuggler：走私者
4. deportation：驅逐
5. squabble：爭吵
6. relocate：重新安置
7. resistance：抵觸