Browse content similar to 02/01/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to this special edition of Reporters, | :00:00. | :00:19. | |
focusing on Europe's migration crisis. | :00:20. | :00:22. | |
I am Chris Morris on the Greek island of Lesbos. | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
In a range of reports we will be focusing on a year which saw | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
the biggest influx of people into Europe since the Second World | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
Matthew Price follows thousands of refugees as they arrive | :00:33. | :00:44. | |
here in Lesbos in search of a better life. | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
Crossing the Mediterranean as a migrant, Gabriel Gatehouse gets | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
a close-up view of the rescue operation off the Italian coast. | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
Jeremy Bowen reports from Syria on how the war is driving the migrant | :00:55. | :01:20. | |
crisis. The immense amount of people will continue to pose Europe big | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
challenges perhaps for years because this war has a lot of killing left | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
in it. Stateless and at sea. Jonathan Head reports on south-east | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
Asia's migrant crisis, as thousands of Muslims were left stranded in the | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
Bay of Bengal. They've been cast adrift. They've told people on the | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
phone they had no food and water and they are in just terrible shape at | :01:43. | :01:44. | |
the moment, begging for help. Fergal Keane meets a 16-year-old | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
girl who has made the three and a half thousand kilometre | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
journey from Syria to Germany. I want to be an astronaut, | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
to go out and find an alien! The world changed in 2015 | :01:55. | :02:09. | |
as long-running conflicts in Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan, | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
and other parts of the world forced thousands of people to flee | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
their homes in search Nearly 1 million people | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
entered Europe by sea, creating the worst refugee crisis | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
since the Second World War. EU ministers agreed a plan | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
to relocate around 120,000 refugees Greece became a focal point | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
for migrants fleeing from the Middle East | :02:33. | :02:40. | |
and North Africa as they made and thousands more arrived | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
here in Lesbos. This is what it feels | :02:44. | :02:54. | |
like to survive. And some were just in shock. | :02:55. | :03:08. | |
then overwhelmed with relief. It is the scale of this crisis | :03:09. | :03:21. | |
which has so far outwitted The remains of this great migration | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
litter the coastline here. A life jacket left behind | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
by every person who has made Six drown in these waters every day | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
and now the weather has turned. But it did chill them to the bone. | :03:36. | :03:57. | |
or something? There are two things fuelling this, | :03:58. | :04:08. | |
one is the instability, the war is on the other side | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
of the water in places like Syria and Iraq which is pushing people, | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
but what is drawing them and helping them come is an increasingly complex | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
smuggling network that gets them And Europe's politicians | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
have not so far came up The strain is also showing on this | :04:25. | :04:44. | |
Greek island. In less boss, on the worst days, part of this upmarket | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
holiday destination become a stinking, sprawling refugee camp. | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
Almost all of them tell us they are leaving war | :04:54. | :05:04. | |
Some say they just want a better life. | :05:05. | :05:12. | |
Where do they want to go? Germany. Germany. Germany. | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
But today the deal done in Brussels will see them distributed | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
Some in Europe will be angered by that. | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
Others will think it the right thing to do. | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
It does not though bring an end to this mass movement. | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
Matthew Price, BBC News, Lesbos. | :05:33. | :05:33. | |
The sheer number of life jackets abandoned on this beach gives | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
you some idea of the scale of what has been happening here. | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
But the migration crisis is not just about the Greek islands. | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
Tens of thousands of people have crossed the dangerous waters | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
of the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy. | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
It is about eight times the width of the English channel | :05:52. | :05:53. | |
Fine, if you are in a luxury liner, but not if you are packed | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
What happens on those vessels is usually kept well away | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
Gabriel Gatehouse has spent time on a boat owned by a private | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
American charity to get some idea of what it is like to cross | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
It is mid-morning when the search and rescue team aboard the Phoenix | :06:13. | :06:19. | |
catches sight of the first boat, a blue smudge on the horizon. | :06:20. | :06:21. | |
It is a wooden vessel designed to carry about a dozen fishermen, | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
but there are 560 migrants on board here, half of them crammed below | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
I think what we are doing is we are deliberately | :06:31. | :06:40. | |
approaching the boat, not from the side, but from behind | :06:41. | :06:43. | |
and that is to stop everyone from rushing over to one side | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
The boat is so overpacked and one false movement could capsize it. | :06:48. | :06:55. | |
Most are from Eritrea. Some can't swim. The Zodiac ferries the | :06:56. | :07:13. | |
migrants back to the safety of the Phoenix. With hundreds aboard, the | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
operation takes hours. On the deck of the migrant boat, | :07:17. | :07:18. | |
the last remaining men are still waiting anxiously | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
amid the few abandoned belongings of those who have | :07:24. | :07:25. | |
already been rescued. Below deck, conditions | :07:26. | :07:28. | |
were far worse. There were 250 people crammed down | :07:29. | :07:38. | |
here and you can see that there is water coming | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
into the boat here. You can imagine people | :07:46. | :07:47. | |
here for hours, crammed together, As the day wears on, | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
more boats appear, by noon there are more than two and a half | :07:54. | :08:00. | |
thousand people adrift around us. Ships from various European navies | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
are coordinating their The migrants themselves will all be | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
taken back to Sicily. What happens to them then | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
is a matter of heated political debate and of huge uncertainty | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
for those desperate to make Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC News, | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
off the coast of Libya. Some European nations took drastic | :08:25. | :08:46. | |
action to prevent people arriving. Hungary built a huge fence while | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
other countries decided later in the year that only refugees from Syria, | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
Iraq and Afghanistan, would be allowed to cross their borders. | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
There were angry protests in northern Greece at the Macedonian | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
border as thousands tried to head north. I was at a border crossing as | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
Greek police fired tear gas into the crowd. Another border, another | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
damning indictment of Europe's failing migration policy. | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
Macedonia's only been letting Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans enter | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
from Greece. In response, migrants from other | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
countries have blocked the border crossing. There's tension. And then | :09:27. | :09:37. | |
this. Confusion. Screams. Tear gas. Police have fired tear gas and, as | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
you can see, they are pulling people out of the crowd next to the border, | :09:41. | :09:42. | |
one by one. They seem determined to clear this area come what may. | :09:43. | :09:50. | |
They've come this far and refuse to go back. Even if the EU wants to | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
deport them. When the dust settles, the police back off. | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
With one group, mainly from Iran, still refusing to move. Please help | :10:02. | :10:08. | |
us. We have nobody, please help us. Not far away, Syrian refugees | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
fleeing from the Civil War now stranded in a field unable to | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
continue their journey. The strain is showing. They're | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
exhausted. More than 40 bus loads have arrived since the border was | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
blocked. We sleep here in cold and without water and food. We have | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
children, we feel afraid, so, so afraid. There's anger and | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
frustration everywhere here and there's tragedy. They've gathered | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
round a bodybag, a man electric yewed by a high voltage wire on the | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
railway line. No-one even knows his name. For some, it's too much -- | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
electrocuted. We are dying here, we are freezing, I have my wife here, | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
my family here. The UN is struggling to provide for thousands stuck here. | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
It's hardly safe to distribute food. Greece has asked for more help from | :11:09. | :11:14. | |
the EU. But European policy has come to this, stalemate in the border | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
lands, recriminations and yet more arrivals every day. So where are all | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
the refugees coming from? Many are fleeing conflict and persecution in | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
places like Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea, but the majority come from | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
Syria. The UN has described Syria as the biggest exporter of refugees in | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
the world, more than four million people have fled from the country's | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
Civil War. Jeremy Bowen sent this report from inside Syria on how the | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
war is fuelling the migrant crisis. You may find some of the images in | :11:48. | :11:56. | |
this report distressing. This is Yamouk skeleton. It was a | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
Palestinian refugee camp for families who were forced out of | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
Israel in another war. No civilians are left on this site, controlled by | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
Palestinian fighters and the Syrian Army. Some families, the fighters | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
said, are heading to Europe. 400 metres away, a Jihadist from | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
Al-Qaeda and Islamic state and thousands of trapped civilians. | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
Europe is waking up belatedly to the consequences of having a major war, | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
a series of wars, right on its doorstep. The immense movement of | :12:32. | :12:39. | |
people caused by war will continue to pose Europe big challenges, | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
perhaps for years, because this war has a lot of killing left in it. The | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
Middle East is knocking on Europe's doors and it's not going to go away. | :12:48. | :12:58. | |
The beaches in la tack ya on Syria's Mediterranean coast could be on a | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
# # Latakia. Children still play in | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
the waves here instead of dying in them. For the welloff, the sea is | :13:09. | :13:20. | |
for fun, not escape. Latakia is the provincial capital and a regime | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
stronghold. Because it's relatively safe, its population's more than | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
doubled, as it's absorbed 1.6 million Syrians who're refugees in | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
their own country. That's twice as many as Germany's taking. | :13:33. | :13:40. | |
7,000 are at a camp at the sports centre, they're well looked after. | :13:41. | :13:49. | |
The refugee crisis is created and driven by war. | :13:50. | :14:00. | |
Uma fled here after Idlib, another provincial capital, fell to the | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
rebels in March. Her eldest son was killed fighting for the Syrian Army | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
and another son was badly wounded. She escaped with her husband and | :14:10. | :14:16. | |
five youngest children. TRANSLATION: We started running. We | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
past groups but thank God they didn't recognise us. I saw them in | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
my own eyes. They were butchering a man and playing with his head. I ran | :14:27. | :14:34. | |
away with my children and for a week they couldn't stop crying and had | :14:35. | :14:44. | |
nightmares. At the military hospital in Latakia, they judge the ferocity | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
of the fighting by the number of Syrian Army casualties they receive. | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
It's a difficult time. Difficult time. Because there is a huge number | :14:55. | :15:03. | |
and we are underfunded at the same time. Amongst hundreds of thousands | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
of wounded, one estimate is that 80,000 Syrian Army soldiers have | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
been killed. That's more than the regular fighting strength of the | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
British Army. This soldier didn't want to be identified. He lost his | :15:17. | :15:23. | |
arm when Idlib fell. TRANSLATION: I am in pain and my | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
mother can't know that. I don't want her to worry about me. Once I've got | :15:27. | :15:36. | |
a new arm, I will go to see her. In the village, everyone turned out | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
after a killing on the front Ryan. -- frontline. The Alawites are from | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
the same religious sect as the President. Syrian attacks often | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
create more refugees and so do advances by Jihadists. War makes | :15:54. | :16:06. | |
people flee for their lives. After this, they report back to their | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
units. Jeremy Bowen, BBC News in Syria. Far away from this European | :16:11. | :16:18. | |
crisis came news of a humanitarian disaster in South East Asia. | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
Thousands of people fleeing persecution in Bangladesh and | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
Myanmar were trapped on boats in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, | :16:27. | :16:33. | |
they were trying to reach safety in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, but | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
those countries refused to let them in. Jonathan Head tracked down one | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
boat in Thai waters packed with refugees. | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
As we approach the stricken vessel, cries of desperation and distress | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
carried across the water. We'd heard there were boats packed with | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
migrants out here on the Andaman Sea, but finding them was a real | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
challenge. Finally we'd tracked one down. | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
This is incredible. We have heard about this boat for the last five or | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
six days. They've been cast adrift. They've told people on the phone | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
they had no food and water and they are in just terrible shape at the | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
moment begging for help. They are in Thai waters but have had absolutely | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
no help, no supplies, for close to a week. There are plenty of women and | :17:21. | :17:23. | |
children on board. These are people who may have been at sea for close | :17:24. | :17:29. | |
to three months. They're begging for help. We think there are many more | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
boats like this out in the sea at the moment. 15-year-old Mohammed | :17:35. | :17:42. | |
shouted his story from the stern. He'd been abandoned by the crew six | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
days ago, he told us. The engine no longer worked properly. These are | :17:48. | :17:55. | |
Rahinja Muslims from Myanmar and unwanted and persecuted in their | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
country, they are not wanted anywhere else either. The Thai Navy | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
is offering to help and to find other lost boats. But will they let | :18:04. | :18:10. | |
the Rahinja stay? In the past, they have pushed them back out to sea. A | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
hardline approach shared by naturing countries. -- neighbouring | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
countries. We still have no idea what will become of these people. We | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
threw them everything we had. But after so long at sea, they need a | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
lot more. They need proper shelter, medical care and they need somewhere | :18:32. | :18:33. | |
they can call home. Back in Europe, back on Lesbos, | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
and many of the people arriving here want to head for Germany, | :18:39. | :18:41. | |
it is the most popular destination. Fergal Keane followed the story | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
of a 16-year-old girl, Noujain Mustaffa who travelled more | :18:45. | :18:52. | |
than 3000 kilometres from Syria to Germany where she wants | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
to apply for asylum. There are big plans being made now, | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
but nobody really knows how If any EU plan can stop the arrival | :19:01. | :19:08. | |
of tens of thousands seeking Like Noujain, who we first met | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
on Hungary 's border, trying to reach her brother already | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
seeking asylum in Germany. You should fight to get | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
what you want in this world. A disabled 16-year-old | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
with big dreams. I would like to be an astronaut, | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
to go out and find an alien! But Europe, including Britain | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
would prefer Syrian refugees stayed That is why 1 billion euros has been | :19:40. | :19:51. | |
pledged to help From where Noujain set out to try | :19:52. | :19:59. | |
and reach Germany with her sister, In Turkey everyone wants to kick you | :20:00. | :20:18. | |
out. I don't feel welcome. By the time we met her again three days | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
later, she and her sister had been detained in Slovenia. I'm OK. It's | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
not good. Europe is struggling to find a coherent response to the | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
crisis. People were pushed from border to border or held this | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
centres like this. This is another wait station on the long, long | :20:40. | :20:42. | |
journey that so many of these people have made. It's a a wait station on | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
Europe's trail of failure to deal with this crisis. For Noujain, there | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
is a simple problem. Any government that says yes to her coming will be | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
faced with questions from many other people demanding why not them. That | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
same day, she and her sister were moved to another camp in Slovenia | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
with other migrants and refugees. Do you know where you are going or | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
where they are going to send you after this? I don't know. I'm lost | :21:14. | :21:22. | |
here. But human rights activists pressured the government. Noujain | :21:23. | :21:24. | |
was released. And here she is, at the end | :21:25. | :21:25. | |
of the nearly 4000 mile journey on a train to meet her | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
brother in Germany. I have heard a lot from refugees | :21:29. | :21:30. | |
and migrants about what Europe can give to them, but let me ask you, | :21:31. | :21:47. | |
what can your family give to Europe? TRANSLATION: The most important | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
thing that you can give here is to give a good example | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
about our people and about Here in northern Germany, | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
Noujain is on her way As a Syrian refugee, | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
she has a good chance. Noujain was born with cerebral palsy | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
and she believes advanced medical I came to the right place | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
and hopefully they will help me. When you look into the future do | :22:20. | :22:28. | |
you ever see a day when you might bring your gifts, the great gift | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
of inspiration that you have, that you might bring that back | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
to Syria, to your people? It is going to take a long, | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
long time before Syria gets back up. But many millions have | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
already abandoned Syria. A nation that loses a child | :22:49. | :23:02. | |
like Noujain is losing its best. Fergal Keane, BBC News, | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
northern Germany. And that is all from this special | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
edition of Reporters, focusing on Europe's | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
migration crisis. I am Chris Morris on the Greek | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
island of Lesbos, goodbye for now. Good evening. More wind and rain at | :23:21. | :23:46. | |
times through the rest of the weekend. Our weather dominated by | :23:47. | :23:47. |