The People Trade
ПОВОЛЖСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ СЛУЖБЫ
Кафедра иностранных языков.
ДОМАШНЕЕ ЧТЕНИЕ
Предмет: английский язык
тема :
“THE PEOPLE TRADE”
Выполнил : студент 2-го курса
208 группы очного отделения
специальности 0211
Чернов Вадим Александрович
Проверил: Cалеева Л.П.
г. САРАТОВ 2000
Статья из журнала NEWSWEEK JULY 3, 2000 : "THE PEOPLE TRADE".
"THE PEOPLE TRADE".
Special report.
Europe needs workers: immigrants want a better life. Inside the shadowy -
and dangerous - world of human smuggling.
Indide the customs office in Dover, England, a fax machine chirruped.
Out came a message from the European Pathway, a P&O Stena Line ferry that
was churning across the channel from Zeebrugge, Belgium. The crew was
dutifully alerting British authorities to a suspicious truck, a big white
Mercedes-Benz tractor hauling a refrigerator unit supposedly filled with
tomatoes. One of the last to board the ferry, the truck bore the name Van
Der Spek TRANSPORT. The name of the firm (it would later emerge that the
company was only four days old ) triggered misgivings - perhaps because it
was close, but not identical, to that of an established Dutch trucking
company. The track, said a British customs spokesman, "fit the profile of
one that could be used to smuggle cigarettes, drugs or contraband... It was
a hunch."
It was just before midnight, Sunday, June 18, the hottest day of the
year, when the European Pathway pulled into Doverunder the city's landmark
chalk cliffs. Customs officials were waiting for the Mercedes truck as it
trundled off the ferry. They told the driver to back into Bay 9 of the
inspection shed. Opening the big doors to the airtight refrigeration
container. they first came across pallets of crated tomatoes. Muscling the
tomatoes aside, the officers found one body. Then they found another body,
and then another and another. In all, they found 54 dead men, four dead
women and two traumatized men clinging to life - all of them young Chinese,
probably from Fujian province, who had been headed to Britain in search of
jobs. "I will never forget the sight that greeted us when we opened the
back doors," one of the customs inspectors said, "There were just piles and
piles of bodies."
The calamity in Dover shook not only Britain, where nothing on such
a scale, had ever happened before, but all of Europe. From the boot of
Italy to the bords of Norway, immigrants are entering Europe in record
numbers. Pushed out of their own countries by economic hardship or
political turmoil, they are drawn to Europe's robust prosperity, especially
within the 15 countries of the European Union. "There is a strategic
equetion that produces a massive push to immigrate," says Jean-Claude
Chesnais at the national institute for Demographic Studies in Paris. Europe
is relativelly small and very rich, with a population that barely
reproduces itself. "And all around - in the former Soviet bloc, in Asia, in
South Asia and Africa - you have massive poverty, an absence of human
rights and enermous population pressure, "says Chesnais.
European business desperately needs foreign labor - at the high and
low ends of the skills scale. But the people of Europe are often
uncomfortable with foreign workers. In the eyes of the electorate, the line
between undocumented immigrants looking for jobs and asylum-seekers looking
for political protection can become blurred. This is especially true if the
man who slips into Britain to work illegally in a Soho kitchen is likely to
apply for asylum if he's caught; most Europe countries that feel
prosperous. So last week in Dover grief over the fate of the Chinese
immigrants mixed with anger about the number of people on the outside who
seem to want in. "The hospitals are always full of them and their
children," says Jonn Keith, a taxi driver. "They are cloggin up the system.
They just want everything for free."
Politicans are caught between the demands of the bottom line and the
ballot box. "We are not in a position to be a lifeboat for the whole
world," says Gwyn Prosser, Labour member of Parliament for Dover. In
Britain, the pressures on the Labour government to do somethinggare
mounting. Last year, the number of asylum seekers was up 55 percent over
1998, reflecting a steep rise in the number of people trying to enter the
country illegally. The government is responding by making the lifeboat a
little less comfortable - climinating, for instance, such perks as cash
benefits to anybody applying for asylum. In the particular case of Chinese
migrants, their numbers are also rising right now for reasons that have
nothing to do with Europe: the United States has cracked down on illegal
Chinese immigration, and Europe is taking up the slack. The French
experience is a case in point: the number of Chinese seeking asylum in
France in 1999 was double that of the year before.
People-smuggling networks are the travel agents of illegal
immigration. Their business is big and growing. The networks trafficking in
Chinese migrants alone are said to take in three billion dollars a year. As
the stakes and numbers rise, so do the risks. Last year 300000 undocumented
immigrants made it do Italy. Many died trying. So far this year 180 people
are known to have died in Italian waters - often pushed into the sea and
left to drown by smugglers trying to lighten their boats to get away from
Italian coast-guard patrols. Four days before the deaths at Dover, a Dutch
organization, United for Intercultural Action, announced that more than
2000 refugees and migrants have died trying to get to Europe. Perhaps an
incident like the death truck in Dover was inevitable. "It is True you
would treat your tomatoes better then [ the smugglies ] treated these
people," says Wim De-Bruin, a spokesman for the National Public
Prosecutor's Office in Rotterdam. "But the difference is that with tomatoes
and other goods, you get paid when you deliver them in good condition."
At the end of last week, the bodies found in Dover remained
unidentified. But British authorities believe the Chinese began their
journey in Fujian 30000 Dollars a head clients of an extensive smuggling
network that move them from home to the English Channel lush coastal
province in southeast China, Fujian is the main starting point on China's
emigrant traik ( box). Fujian is by no means China's poorest province, but
it sends an estimated 100000 emigrants abroad each year. People call one
town "widows' village" because so many men have left their women behind.
The Pressure to leave Fujian is social as well as economic. "It's like if
you are not a lazy person, then you shouldn't be in mainland China," says
Ko-Lin Chin , a professor at Rutgers University in the United States.
"People will say, "You're not in your early 20s: why are you still here?"
As news of what happened in Dover reached the province, grieving
spread quickly. Fujian has sent so many of its sons and daughters abroad
that nobody was sure who had perished or not in the death truck. He
Xiaohong was terrified that her 24 - year old husband, and odd job painter
named Cao Xianxin, was among the dead in Dover. On May 10 he left home for
Britain, comforted by a promise that on his long journey he would be "as
safe as a tourist." He Xiaohong was in tears last week as she vowed: "If my
husband returns safely, he'll have to beat me to death before I ever let
him travel abroad like this again."
The journey to the West is called "sneaking across the water." It's
made possible by Fujainese guides known as "snakeheads." They are important
figures in their homeland. "Everybody knows who the snakeheads are," says
Chen Mei Xing, a Fijianese who slipped into England a few weeks ago. "He's
a businessman with a very hihg status." According to USA authorities,
snakeheads are also part of Chinese gangs known as Triads or Tongs. They
Charge as much as 60000 dollars for a trip to the United States; half as
much for Britain. Typically, a down payment of 5 to 19 percent is made up
front. A migrant who uses the snakehead's services can spend years repaying
the debt. The Fijianese who emigrate see the fee as a smart investment. In
the end Fujian benefits too. Fujianese migrants pump large sums of money
into the economy they left behind. City officials in Changle ( population:
600000) estimate that locals who have gone abroad put 100 million dollars
back into the city's economy each year in remittances to their families and
property investments back home.
Not that long ago the destination more often than not was America
("The beautiful country"). But in 1993 a freighter called the Golden
Venture ran aground off Long Island, and 10 Chinese immigrants drowned
trying to swim to shore. The incident promted a series of crackdowns by the
U.S. government. Thousands of Chinese still migrate to America - earlier
this year, three Fujiance were found dead in a shipping container in
Seattle - but some of the traffic had shifted to other countries.
Increasingly, Britain seems to be the alternative country of choice.
The largest Chinese community in Europe is there. Language is an important
draw. Even though the government is cutting back benefits, they are still
relatively generous: food vouchers (instead of cash) and housing ( though
asylum seekers can no longer choose where to live). Another reason for the
rise in asylum seekers to Britain is that Germany has tightended up it is
border controls. Anyone can claim asylum in Germany and stay for years
while the case goes through the courts. But under a 1994 law German
authorities can turn away refugees along it is border before they set foot
on German soil and have a chance to apply for asylum. This has caused the
annual number of refugees coming into Germany to plunge from 513000 in 1993
to fewer than 100000 last year.
People - smuggling networks adjust quickly to such changes. In
Fujian, one family's 18 years old son left home in April. Jin Xicai (not
his real name) wanted something more then this job repairing mobile phones
in Fujian. The family couldn't afford to send him to the Unites States, so
it settled for the less costly trip to Britain. On April 3, Jin hopped a
train to Beijing, joining other would-be emigrants in the capital.
Snaakeheads had promised him a plane ride to Europe, but instead Jin was
hustled onto a train for the week - long trans - Siberian trek to Moscow.
He crossed the China - Russia border using a genuine Chinese passport. It
had been procured on the black market; the original photograph had been
carefully razored off and replaced by a photo of Jin.
When Jin phoned home from Moscow; he said he was being held under
armed guard. Snakeheads had confiscated his documents, luggage and spare
clothes to prevent him from escaping. His next phone call came from
somewhere in the Czech Republic. To get there he had apparently traveled by
train, truck, even a horse - drawn cart. Then came a few more phone calls -
from Germany and, finally, Holland.
Jin's phone calls point to a well - traveled route from Fujian to
Europe (map). Moscow is a fovered transit point because of relaxed visa
requirements for Chinese citizens. At any given time there are said to be
more than 200000 Chinese in Moscow en route to other countries. Belgrade is
another favorite, for the same reason. Serbian press reports say that 40000
Chinese have settled in Yugoslavia since 1995. From Belgrade it's easy to
slip into Western Europe via Bosnia's porous frontiers.
Краткое содержание.
"THE PEOPLE TRADE".
Special report.
Europe needs workers: immigrants want a better life. Inside the shadowy -
and dangerous - world of human smuggling. People-smuggling networks are the
travel agents of illegal immigration. Their business is big and growing.
The networks trafficking in Chinese migrants alone are said to take in
three billion dollars a year.
Fujian – the most impotant place in the China, from people illegally
emigrate on west.
Fujian – the center of human smuggling. In the Asian countries life very
heavy and the people search of more worthy existence. They choose the
countries which are very rich and in which it is possible to earn. The
people try to get over through border by any ways. They are ready even to
go in inhuman conditions to get in other country. Many died trying. The
emigrants often choose England and Italy, as the country of the future
residing, but these countries do not want them to see at themselves.
Because many emigrants, which come, render harm to economy, they fill in
all hospitals, all parks, all premises of city, are engaged in illegal
earnings, and some who could not find job, become criminals. England and
Italy actively struggle against illegal entrance of the emigrants on
territory of the country.
It is favourable business - human smuggling. Many try on it to earn.
For the large money they promise to transport the people in other
countries, even without the documents. These organizations search for ways
to these countries not directly through China, and transit through Russia
or Czechia for example. Therefore it is very difficult to the countries to
trace a flow of the emigrants. Now countries of Europe have a new task. To
struggle not it is so much with the emigrants, how much with organizations,
which carry out an illegal way of emigration of the people.
The end.
The dictionary:
Smuggling – контрабанда.
Suspicious – подозрительный.
Authorities – власти.
Hunch – догадка.
To trundle – ехать.
Piles - груды.
Calamity – бедствие.
Political turmoil - политическая суматоха.
Europe's robust prosperity - здравое процветание Европы.
Desperately – отчаянно.
Asylum-seekers - ищущие убежища.
Blurred – cтертый.
Prosperous – преуспевающий.
Pressures – давления.
Lifeboat - cпасательная шлюпка.
Benefits – выгоды.
Slack – слабый.
Experience – опыт.
Trying to lighten - попытка облегчать.
Lush – пышный.
To estimate – оценивать.
Grieving – огорчение.
Terrified – испуганный.
Increasingly - все более и более.
