The People Trade

The People Trade

ПОВОЛЖСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ СЛУЖБЫ

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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.