[E225]UN warns of winter tragedy as refugee crisis lingers

The UN[联合国（United Nations）] refugee[难民，避难者] chief has urged the EU[欧盟（European Union）] to speed up its response to Europe’s refugee crisis[难民危机], warning of a looming[隐隐约约的；正在逼近的] tragedy[悲剧；灾难；惨案] if thousands of people are caught on the move when winter hits. His agency on Friday hailed the beginning of a EU scheme to relocate[重新安置；迁移新址] 160,000 asylum seekers[寻求庇护者] within the bloc to ease the burden[减轻负担] on frontline countries. Nineteen young Eritreans[厄立特里亚] made up the first group to be relocated, leaving Italy for Sweden Friday.

At any moment we could have a tragedy, namely during winter…We know how to winterise[为…作过冬准备；使适应冬季使用；使防冻] a camp. We know how to winterise a tent. We know how to winterise a building. We don’t know how to winterise a crowd moving every day from one country to another.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres

But Guterres warned that crisis-wracked[受危机肆虐的] Greece, which has seen more than 440,000 arrivals this year, would have a far harder time creating the reception and processing facilities[处理设施] needed to ensure a calm and organised relocation process. More than 600,000 people have flooded into Europe so far this year, mainly arriving by boat in Greece and Italy. More than 3,000 have died over the same period trying to cross the Mediterranean[地中海] to Europe.

This is not something that we can ask Greece to do by itself…it is only by a massive investment by the European Union that Greece (will be) able to do it.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres