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Some complain about how the women dress and say they shouldnt walk around so covered up. We have that and much more coming up later in the show. But first we go to ukraine. Ever since russias annexation of the Crimean Peninsula two years ago and the subsequent military conflict in eastern ukraine, tensions have been extremely high between the two countries. The fragile ceasefire that was in place may now be crumbling amid a recent upsurge in violence. In todays report, we take a look at the situation of refugees from russia, people whose criticism of their government forced them to flee their homes and seek a new life in neighboring ukraine. Reporter little remains of alexei vetrovs former life in nizhny novorod. Some pictures of demonstrations, some files on his laptop. Alexei tells us that hes the one carrying the poster. Nostalgia and bitterness. Thats what i feel when i look at these pictures. Ive had to move on. My old life is over. Reporter alexei fled russia two years ago. Eventually he ended up in this hostel in kyiv, ukraine. Each of the rooms is shared by 10 people. For his one and a half square meters alexei pays 40 euros a month in rent. In russia, alexei was a successful Small Business owner and a political activist, which landed him in jail. Right now, hes headed for a Charity Organization in kyiv. It helps to organize aid to eastern ukraine. Alexei volunteers here, helping war victims over the phone. Whats your name, and how can i help you . Reporter we accompany alexei to the Russian Embassy in kyiv. Alexeis been here before, to protest against putin. Its a place that arouses mixed feelings. Im not afraid here, no. But i still feel somewhat uneasy in ukraine, becaue ukraine wont grant me asylum. They wont give me permission to stay here. Reporter alexeis application for asylum was turned down. He still doesnt understand why and believes the reasons he was given were just flimsy excuses. Hes not alone in his plight. Since the annexation of crimea, ukraine has approved only about 5 percent of aslyum applications from russians. Next alexei pays a visit to maxym butkewytsch, a human rights activist who helps people obtain legal assistance. Hes been seeing more and more russian refugees. According to the united nations, alexei meets the criteria for refugee status. Paradoxically, the unhcr recognizes me as a refugee, but ukraine doesnt on the basis of the very same convention. Reporter maxym butkewytsch says hes heard many similar stories. Ukraines government dismisses such allegations. But its human rights ombudsman admits its a complex situation. We do not have a policy of rejecting asylum applications coming from people who have fled russia. Theres no such policy. But there are some difficulties associated with the current legal situation in ukraine. Reporter this legal situation also affects russians who are supporting ukraine in the conflict with russia. For the ukrainian government, they are still here illegally. These military vehicles were captured in the eastern donbass region. We meet another russian, from moscow, who calls himself iwa. Hes joined a rightwing ukrainian volunteer regiment that is fighting the prorussian separatists. I could be stopped on the street at any time, and asked for my papers. Id have to show them my russian passport, and the way things are now, i could easily be passed on to the Security Services and deported. Reporter some in ukraine worry that the Russian Secret Service might send in fake refugees. Aid organizations are familiar with these fears. Of course, we understand very well that there are some security reasons, probably, that might be the floor for the rejections on the side of the immigration service, when the applications are considered. Reporter for russians who seek aslyum in ukraine, this mix of suspicion and bureaucratic hesitation can be an insurmountable hurdle. Alexei has his own explanation for why its so hard for russians to obtain asylum status in ukraine. They have plenty of political activists of their own, so why would they want russian activists . The government sees them as a danger reporter alexeis only choice right now is to work as a courier. He rarely earns more than 50 or 60 euros a month. Alexei says hes worn out by the constant struggle of his life here kyiv. Hes now hoping to move on, and try his luck with an asylum application in some other country. Michelle not everyone thinks of hot sun and fine sand as a desirable holiday. Some people find the cool weather and dazzling white snow in the alps an ideal destination, not just in winter but in the summer too. Every year, many people flock to zell am see, a picturesque village, located high up in the austrian alps. It is known for its breathtaking views, crisp alpine air and its huge popularity with muslim tourists. About one in every three visitors is from the gulf states. The regions mild temperatures give the arab visitors some respite from the searing hundred degree and higher temperatures at home. Despite the healthy profits this tourism generates, some locals complain of a culture clash. Reporter nestled in an alpine valley, zell am see. In the summer, the town is a holiday hotspot. Its especially popular with tourists from the middle east, who turn the sleepy town into a cultural melting pot. Many of our guests are from arab states. They like our location, because of our poor weather. We can guarantee that theyll have some rain every day reporter thats what draws people here . Maybe so. Reporter gulf states residents, it seems, are happy to escape the scorching summer heat. In fact, about a third of the tourists here come from the arab world. One visitor, an egyptian doctor who is christian, says that could have unintended consequences. If they are going to be the majority year after year, and this is what we see, they get married to more than one wife, to bring more and more children, so the number will be increasing more and more. And i dont know what will happen to europe after 20 years or 30 years. Reporter more than ten years ago, the local tourist board started promoting their alpine paradise to travel agencies in the middle east. Today the town draws tens of thousands of visitors from arab states, and they bring their customs and traditions with them. I have two wives and five children. All of them is a student, nobody of them is working. Just me, im working. And my wife, shes teacher at the school. So one wife is working as a teacher . Yes, and the second wife is staying at home, and cooking, like this. Reporter his two wives are quickly hustled away. Many of the tourists here come from saudia arabia, where violations of sharia law are punished harshly. So what draws them to the alps, of all places . All people is talking about this place. Why, why is it like this . Because its here a nice place for nature. Wait, wait. Wait, can i ask some question before . Of course. This is for, what is it . This is for german television. I mean, for me its good, no problem. But maybe for my wife or my friend, they dont like that, yeah. Reporter why that is, though, were not told. The nearby glacier is a winter wonderland, even in the summer. A family of holidaymakers from the gulf can spend up to 20,000 euros during a weeks stay in austria. Its a boon to the local economy, but not everyone here is welcoming them with open arms. What i dont like is that they walk around here in their burkas, totally veiled and covered. Thats not right. We have to adapt to their customs when we visit their countries, too. Theyre here on holiday. They arent refugees, theyre tourists. Reporter the women may be veiled or at least wear headscarves but here in the alps, far from home, theyre clearly enjoying themselves. The men, too, seem to be in a holiday mood. We cant all have the same cultures. We have to live together, even though we have different views, different cultures, different opinions. Is your wife here . My children and my wife, yeah. They are over there. Reporter we ask if we can interview them. Let me ask her, if shell accept your reporter he goes over to ask. Back in town there are signs in arabic, intended to help smooth out potential culture clashes and misunderstandings. But there are still complaints from some locals, especially in the service sector. After every trip, you have to clean your taxi. It takes thirty minutes after every trip to clean up after them. Dirty. And when there are children, its a terrible trip. No one buckles up. If they do buckle up, they undo the seat belts right on the autobahn. The children hop into the luggage space. You might be on the way, driving 180 or 160 kilometers an hour on the autobahn in germany, and you have to hit the brakes and yell at them. Thats the type of people they are. Reporter most other locals are more reticent. We werent able to get an interview with city officials, tourism representatives, or any of the hotels in the center of town. They want to avoid bad publicity. But barbara pillwein, who rents out holiday accomodations, tells us she no longer welcomes guests from arab countries. They book an apartment for a certain number of people, and then they just show up with a larger group. Thats a problem for landlords and inkeepers, because our prices are set according to the stated number of residents. And our apartments arent equipped to handle such large groups. Reporter back at home, temperatures reach 54 degrees celsius in the shade. Here its a refreshing 18 degrees. In the towns recreation park, the potential culture clash seems to be less of a problem. Theyre very good guests, and every year they get a bit friendlier. And theyre adapting to our rules and way of doing things. So quite honestly, i also love our arab guests. They are so happy to enjoy themselves, and they also enjoy spending theiir money. Reporter visitors from the gulf spend about twice as much as other tourists. And some spend far more than that. Were german television. Where are you from . We are from dubai. Sorry i dont no, its fine. Who are you . Im from dubai. A normal guy. Youre not. Yeah, im a normal guy. But you said your highness. Im not a highness. Reporter a normal guy, then, in a rolls royce. Many of the visitors also make a stop by the summer toboggan run. Like most everywhere these days, selfies are all the all the rage in the middle east. Sometimes that can hold things up. Sometimes the arab guests stop to take a selfie, or drop their cell phones. That leads to traffic jams, where we have to stop the toboggan run. Then other guests come to us and want a second ride. So those are the kind of problems we see. Reporter local opinions clearly differ when it comes to visitors from the gulf. But theres one thing thats undisputed theyre good for business. Michelle should tourists adhere to local norms of behavior or should the locals make a better effort to understand other cultures . Let us know what you think about that by getting in touch on facebook, email or twitter. With the refugee crisis and terror attacks dominating headlines, tales of the economic crisis that threatened to tear the europe union apart all but disappeared. The bank crisis is however still affecting parts of the continent. Italy, the eurozones thirdlargest economy, is struggling with huge public debt as well as a looming crisis in its banking sector. All that has has driven thousands of Small Businesses into bankruptcy, for instance in the northern italian town of padua. But in our next report, we show how some enterprising employees there took matters into their own hands. Reporter solimano dal corso is under pressure. He may be the production manager here, but with 4,000 books due for delivery tomorrow, its all hands on board. The 25 members of the zanardi cooperative havent had an idle moment since they took over their company. If we hadnt taken things into our own hands with our cooperative, then all the machinery here would now be lying still and zanardis would no longer exist. But because we joined together and put everything into the firm, we have breathed life into it again and things are on the up reporter the printing and book Binding Company was founded in padua in 1960 and used to employ more than 300 people. For decades, the firm used to export glossy coffee table books throughout the world. But debts started to heap up during the financial crisis. There were redundancies and the Company Finally went bankrupt. In 2014 the companys founder, giorgio zanardi, hanged himself in his office. His death was a heavy blow. We were all wondering how on earth we could carry on without him. We put our Heads Together and decided to try and make a go of it ourselves, rather than throw away his lifetimes work reporter twentyfive former Staff Members set up a cooperative and invested their own money in the insolvent company. Former managing director, mario grillo was one of them hes currently president of the cooperative. Large parts of the building still lie empty. The Workers Initiative has only been able to rent a third of the space from the liquidator so far. All together, me included, we have invested 500,000 euros in the company. From 10,000 to 30,000 each. All of us are risking our future to some degree. If the thing goes belly up, then well lose all our money. Reporter its 7 30 p. M. The end of another long day for solimano. Overtime is unpaid and like everyone else, he has taken a cut in wages. The firms survival is more important. Solimano has 20,000 euros to lose. He had his Unemployment Benefits paid out in advance as a lump sum. You can do this in italy, if you want to set up a firm. The amount depends on your age. I think it was a good investment. I have to sacrifice a lot of my time for the company, but its more fun. Nowadays, everyone works fullout. People are also prepared to step in and help others, if problems arise. There is more solidarity and we have a lot more common ground. Reporter grillo is pleased to see that old customers are beginning to return. To help the buyout to get off the ground, the cooperative received a 700,000 euro loan to top up the 500,000 euros of workers capital. It came from three regional funds. The cooperative association legacoop played a pivotal role. Some 50 workers buyouts have already taken place across italy, five of them in the veneto region. Our worker buyout model has worked well in our region up to now. All of the participants have to pull together. We Work Together with the workers to prepare the takeover, if the company is economically viable. That means that jobs, skills and prosperity can be retained. And thats in everyones interest. Reporter in 2015 alone, there were thirteen workers buyouts in italy. There will be more this year. The zanardi cooperative marked its one Year Anniversary in january and had a small increase in turnover to report. Its still pretty tough. We have to buy back more machinery and we have an awful lot of debt. Its a challenge, a gamble. And we have to do everything to make sure it pays off. I dont regret it. Were a good team. I would say were a winning team. Reporter a few weeks ago, they were able to buy more machinery from the bankruptcy assets. Now they can take on more orders and employ more staff. With any luck, some of them will also want to join the cooperative and invest in their own future. Michelle imagine losing everything you ever knew at age nine. Your belongings, your friends, your family, your home. Having to flee at a moments notice from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Im not talking about todays Syrian Refugees but about the germans cast out from their homes in the upheaval at the end of the second world war. Such as those from former german territories that are now part of poland. Many of the families were forced to abandon some of their most prized possessions. Only now, since the fall of communism have these former refugees now well into old age been able to retrieve some treasures from their past. Reporter his childhood home must have been here somewhere. Klaus thiel was nine when he had to flee his hometown, kostrzyn, which was destroyed by soviet bombers in the second world war. It was a brutal rupture from one day to the next we were nothing. Reporter nowadays, the town is part of poland. The journalist spends a lot of time here these days. He is showing two polish Treasure Hunters where part of his family legacy, his history, might be buried. That was the commandants headquarters. Here is my house. Number 22. Reporter but little remains of it. Theyre trying to unearth the cellar. Thiel wants to get in there. I have a lot of beautiful books down here. And my relatives have some real treasures down there, silver cutlery for 24 people and porcelain. And my mother had something that was very valuable back then, at least 20 jars full of potted meat. Reporter the family were forced to leave almost everything behind. The same was true of some 12 million germans who fled or were expelled as nazi germany crumbled. Thiel dreams of finding a memento of the past. But its not looking good. The cellar is too deeply buried. We need completely different machinery to dig here. Its a tragedy what else can i say . Reporter the men try their luck next door. Perhaps they can get into the cellar of thiels childhood home from there. While thiel waits above ground, the professionals creep into the cellar of the former pharmacy. German soldiers were entrenched here during the battle for the town. Entry is prohibited. The Treasure Hunters from the association called perkun could be risking their lives. When the bomb hit the house, the whole top story collapsed. This could give way at any moment. Reporter its a dangerous endeavour. But thiel is pleased with the results. The Treasure Hunters bring him objects that belonged to the houses inhabitants awakening memories of his childhood more than 70 years ago. Hutschenreuther very expensive porcelain. An inkwell. And inside it a small shell brought home from the baltic. For me, each of these objects awaken emotions even if they didnt belong to my family. Maybe they belonged to people i knew. Reporter the treasure seekers are unable to reach the cellar of his childhood home. Thiel isnt sure whether hell continue the hunt. But, he says, retrieving parts of his chilhood in this way is a healing process. Michelle i think thats something felt by refugees everywhere the need to retrieve ones past in order to move forward in the present. Before we get to the end of our program, wed like to let you know about a special series coming up in the next few weeks from our correspondent in russia. Eastward stories from russia. A giant country facing giant challenges. From the black sea over the Ural Mountains to st. Petersburg. We take you on a journey to sinking cities, ancient cultures to a nation full of contradictions. What are the dreams, fears and hopes of the russian people . Join us for eastward stories from russia. Michelle thats it for today. Thank you for watching. We hope you enjoyed todays program and look forward to our upcoming series. Dont forget that you can watch any of those reports again on our website. In the meantime its goodbye from all of us on the focus on europe team. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] steves a selection of ferries make the 50mile crossing between helsinki and tallinn nearly hourly. Because of the ease of this delightful twohour cruise and the variety a quick trip over to estonia adds to your nordic travels, pairing helsinki and tallinn is a natural. Stepping off the boat in tallinn, the capital of estonia, you feel youve traveled a long way culturally from finland. Its a mix of east and west. Tallinns nordic lutheran culture and language connect it with stockholm and helsinki, but two centuries of czarist russian rule and nearly 50 years as part of the soviet union have blended in a distinctly russian flavor. Fins and estonians share a similar history. First, swedish domination, then russian. Then independence after world war i. Until 1940, the estonians were about as affluent as the fins, but then estonia was gobbled up by an expanding soviet empire and spent the decades after world war ii under communism. When the ussr fell, estonia regained its freedom, and in 2004, it joined the european union. Tallinn has modernized at an astounding rate since the fall of the soviet union. Its Business District shines with the same glass and steel gleam youll find in any modern city. Yet nearby are the rugged and fully intact medieval walls, and the town within these ramparts has a beautifully preserved oldworld ambiance. Among medieval cities in the north of europe, none are as well preserved as tallinn. The town hall square was a marketplace through the centuries. Its fine Old Buildings are a reminder that tallinn was once an important medieval trading center. Today its a touristy scene, full of people just having fun. Through the season, each midday, cruiseship groups congest the center as they blitz the town in the care of local guides. Like many tourist zones, tallinns is a commercial gauntlet. Here theres a hokey torture museum, strolling russian dolls, medieval theme restaurants complete with touts, and enthusiastic hawkers of ye olde taste treats. Woman [ laughs ] steves but just a couple blocks away is, for me, the real attraction of tallinn workaday locals enjoying real freedom and better economic times. Stillramshackle courtyards host inviting cafes. Bistros serve organic cuisine in a chic patina of oldworldmeets new. And just outside the walls, it seems theres no tourism at all. Under towering ramparts, the former moat is now a park, perfect for a warm afternoon stroll

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