:00:00. > :00:00.Now on BBC News, it's time for Our World: Life on the Rubbish
:00:00. > :00:12.This is the rubbish dump for the city of Erbil,
:00:13. > :00:20.capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
:00:21. > :00:23.Each day, it gets bigger, fed by a fleet of trucks,
:00:24. > :00:35.bringing thousands of tonnes of waste.
:00:36. > :00:37.For some people, Erbil and its rubbish dump provide
:00:38. > :01:05.Hundreds scrape a living from the city's waste.
:01:06. > :02:04.Ibrahim and his family are Kurds from Kobani in Syria.
:02:05. > :03:06.They have worked on the city's dump for six months.
:03:07. > :04:18.Some of the other children are even younger.
:04:19. > :04:22.Up to 1.2 million people have come to the Kurdish region from Syria
:04:23. > :04:31.Thousands of refugees end up here in Erbil,
:04:32. > :04:44.It's July and the temperature at the dump can reach 50 centigrade.
:04:45. > :04:48.The burning rubbish emits dangerous fumes and causes a stench you can
:04:49. > :05:00.People there are demanding that the toxic tip be closed.
:05:01. > :05:09.Those working on it just have to put up with the filth.
:05:10. > :05:11.This woman and her daughter search the rubbish for anything
:05:12. > :05:19.They belong to a large family of Arab Bedouins near IS-controlled
:05:20. > :05:59.They had sheep and other animals and were quite well off.
:06:00. > :09:22.So to is the fine food among us the rubbish. -- sometimes they find
:09:23. > :09:26.food. She has five young children
:09:27. > :10:58.and spends most of her time at home. Muhammad used to be
:10:59. > :10:59.a prosperous farmer. Now he has to depend on his wives
:11:00. > :12:29.and children to survive. Meanwhile, Muhamed the need for
:12:30. > :13:01.expensive medicines is putting them on the extra pressure.
:13:02. > :13:05.These two siblings are taking their father to hospital.
:13:06. > :13:14.He's diabetic and needs to see a doctor regularly.
:13:15. > :13:25.They'll have to pay and the family is worried he may not make
:13:26. > :14:07.Six months later, it is January, 2016. It's freezing. But no matter
:14:08. > :14:11.the season, the rubbish from Irbil keeps piling up at the dump. The
:14:12. > :14:18.first trucks produced the best pickings. Even at 4am some people
:14:19. > :14:25.are at work. Ibrahim and his father,
:14:26. > :14:28.the Syrian Kurds from Kobani, But the most valuable
:14:29. > :15:35.items have already gone. The dump offers a precarious
:15:36. > :15:40.livelihood. But even more people
:15:41. > :15:52.are scavenging now than in July. Some of them have surprising
:15:53. > :16:42.backgrounds. But for one family, things have got
:16:43. > :16:47.better. Since the summer, Muhammad's health has improved. He and his
:16:48. > :16:53.wives and children are still living in the house belonging to the
:16:54. > :18:08.Kurdish landowner. And now he pays them to work on his farm.
:18:09. > :18:11.Barzan does not speak much Kurdish and the landowner only a little
:18:12. > :18:13.Arabic, but by mixing the two languages they manage
:18:14. > :19:19.Unlike most refugees in this area, Muhammad and his family have
:19:20. > :19:27.returned to something like their old way of life. But it's small
:19:28. > :20:14.compensation. The Iraq Muhammad new is no longer. -- knew.
:20:15. > :20:15.Thanks to their friendship, the families' circumstances have
:20:16. > :22:24.But life is still far harder than anything they knew back home.
:22:25. > :22:28.Ibrahim and his father are no longer working on the rubbish dump. They
:22:29. > :22:32.found jobs on a chicken farm. Despite calls to close the toxic
:22:33. > :22:40.tip, it remains open. So long as it does, it will offer
:22:41. > :22:43.this region's most desperate It's a slightly fresher feel
:22:44. > :23:20.to the weather this weekend, as the high humidity moves away,
:23:21. > :23:24.which fuelled the thunderstorms over