A refugee. Anyone. Oh, my god. Its not something which you choose, its something that happens to you. Narrator tonight, a frontlspecial presentation, exodus. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. And Additional Support from koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation. And laura debonis. wind whipping in 2015, over one Million People smuggled themselves into europe. baby whimpering for a year we followed some of their extraordinary journeys across 26 countries. We filmed them as they left their homes and families behind. bell ringing across continents, all the way to their final destinations. And they used camera phones to record the places no one else could go. This is the story of those journeys, told by the people who risked everything for the dream of a better life. I survived isis, i survived beheadings, i survived assad. explosion allahu akbar i survived shellings, i survived the sea. I survived everything. I was almost killed for a stupid idea called the uk. din of crowd explosions shouting in izmir, finding a smuggler wasnt hard. Theyre everywhere. The very first night we got there i was walking in Basmane Square and they approach you being like, so you want to go to greece . As if youre. This is Human Trafficking but its just. It was that easy. They portray it to you as if youre going on a fivestars yacht into the island and youll be fine. Dont worry about it. But they are. They lie. They are full of lies. I was scared, to be honest. That area is full of wrong things. Human traffickers. People who ended up on the side of the road selling things to carry on with their journeys. The worst part of it is to make fake life jackets. Because we later found out the majority of them make the person sink instead of float. At dawn this morning, this group came ashore. The islands have seen a hue rise in migrant arrivals. Flimsy inflatables. Called to safety. Last 24 hours, more than 40 have died trying to. But these are desperate people, many trying to leave countries in conflict. Eight were found this morning. At least 22 people were killed. Drowned trying to cross from turkey. The image of alan kurdis body washing up at this spot has profoundly shocked this country. baby crying syrians who have already done the journey posted on facebook, and they estimated that itll cost around 5,000 euros. Some people are like, how can they afford that . The refugees, how come they have that much money . Not knowing that refugees fled syria not because theyre poor. They had money, but its not safe for them to live there anymore. And refugees, a lot of them, they sold their properties to do this journey. They literally sold their properties. Sold their houses, their shops, their cars. muffled chatter practicing for tonight. laughter one, two, go. car horns honking baby crying before we took our journey, we heard that there was a boat which five people died because the boat went down and five people died. And you wish you could do something about it, you wish you can change this, but you cant. I was helpless back then. Were still waiting for the truck. Its supposed to arrive to pick the rest of us around 20 to 30 people, 30 people in here to the point. I dont know why its been. It hasnt been. Its a bit windy, its a bit windy today. According to the application, wave heights are going to stay less than 60 centimeters. You dont actually believe that your boat is going to go down and were going to die, it should be fine. quietly its 2 10. Were heading to the point. We got there and we were around 90 people. I was like, well, thats going to be great, if they split us in half, well be 45 on the boat, thatll be great. First boat is on. They put around 35 people on one boat and they were like, go and what scared me the most is that they asked one of the refugees, one of the people who are going to go on the boat, they were like, come, we will train you on how to operate the engine. And i was like, oh, my god. Because this is someone who has no idea, he has never done this, and they train him in, like, three minutes. And there was around 60 people left and there was one boat. This is not going to go right, this is not going to be okay. muffled talk allahu akbar. Allahu akbar. Oh, my god many people speaking at once talking, children crying there was a kid who was sitting right in front of me on the boat. sighs its just seeing. Seeing the fear and its not. I mean, for some. I mean, i mean, werewere young men, we can have it, we can do it, but to see that, like to see that, to see that kids are going through this and theyre crying for help and theyre pleading for you to help them or do something. He was like, literally, it was just like, do something, and he was crying. To see, to witness that is just hard. After half an hour the coast guard showed up, the Turkish Coast guard showed up and they. sighs we all got on the. We were rescued, all of us. Luckily, no one died. No one drowned. And we were taken back to the coast guards station. The treatment was good, they gave us food and water. And then after a while we. After they took our information, they released us after, like, a couple of. Couple of hours. And we went back to izmir. Back to square one. Nobody wants to leave their country and risk dying in the sea. But when it becomes impossible to live in your own country, people will do desperate things. car horns honking explosion honking, gunfire gunfire, shouting shouting child crying allahu akbar. Allahu akbar. Mama mama laughter ship horn blows engines puttering car horns honking chop chop. laughs they are my sisters, you know. The family. Yeah, its my family. Europe, europe, europe, europe. Nine, six, eight, four, nine, two, five, eight. Is this for the back way . Which is about . 2,000 euro. 2,000 euro . Yeah, 2,000 euro. Are you scared . Illequipped and overcrowdd boats run by trafficking. Over 2,500 people are known to have drowned. 25 bodies were recovered. More than a thousand people are feared dead. Up to 4,000 people were rescued from the mediterranean and brought ashore. The mediterranean has been described as a graveyard for migrants. Migrants died in two big shipwrecks. So. many people talking music playing, people chatting so much. After three or four days from being off the grid, we finally made it, finally made it to greece. The boat capsized. We lost all our bleep , all our bags were gone. This is where we spent our night last night. We dont have anything on us. Especially. Especially me, i mean, i only have now my shorts, my tshirt and my running shoes. Everything is lost, basically. child screaming when we landed in greece, expectations didnt align with reality. In my mind i thought it was going to be this organized structure where there are n. G. O. S, volunteers, people helping out, but it was very chaotic. A new boat just arrived. So what people do here, that they steal lifejackets so they can sleep on them. Because youre basically sleeping on the ground if youre not sleeping on one of them. I was kind of pampered in damascus. Like, i had everything i had my car, i could go back to my room, i had my own room, sleeping in my own bed. I didnt sleep on the side of the road ever. Never in my life have i slept on the side of the road, never in my life actually i went camping, i never went camping. I always wanted to and i think ive done my share of camping by now. But i just didnt. I wasnt used to this. And most of those people were traumatized. Theyve left their countries, they almost died on the way. And no one was there to help out. No one did actually care. I was shocked because i thought, like, this was europe. I thought it was going to be different. We had to wait to get a khariter, registration paper with our picture and details on it. And without this paper, we cannot go anywhere. man talking into bullhorn excitedly shouts so, after they arrived and they asked if someone can speak english and i took. I volunteered so i can say the names. Luckily our names were included. We have tkhariter, and now were going to go and book to athens. Ive never been on a ferry in my life and we were like, ugh, this is what i would travel in the sea with. I mean, i dont mind going to canada on this ferry because its legit, this is how people are supposed to travel, not on a ninemeter dinghy. We showered on the ferry, we had something to eat. One of our friends was like, can you sink me now . laughs do you want to record video . What . You are recording video . Yeah. If you have any question, we can talk with you. Okay. Because i can talk english. Where are you from . Im from afghanistan and we have passed a very difficult way and finally we arrived in greece. Where do you want to go . I want to go finland. Finland . Finland. When i heard from news that the borders are open and many people are going to abroad, then i decided it is time to go now or never. Because the people who are living in afghanistan, all of them dont like afghanistan. But why they stay . Because they dont know the way how to come, or if they know the way, they dont have the money to come. Im sure if they have enough money, nobody will remain in afghanistan, and afghanistan will be empty. Here are the buses which the refugees travel to macedonia. And im going to find my friend sadeer. Hi. Im 24 years old and i faced many problems, ive seen many problems in my life and its enough. I want to have the remain, the rest of my life with peace, with civil life with good situation. I remember when i was a child, the regime of taliban. And everything was bad. Taliban was very cruel to all human beings. And especially for women. There was not right for women in the period of taliban, no right. For example the girls and womens were not allowed to go for job, for work, for studying. Everything was forbidden for them. And when they go outside then it was rule they should cover all the parts of their body, all the parts. If their hands or feet was uncovered, if a talib see like that, talib beat them. When i was afghanistan, i saw that taliban are trying to govern again, and every day fight is going on. That is why i decided to leave my home country and come to abroad. quiet crying call to prayer people haggling wind whipping car horns honking me and my wife, we agreed that i will travel to the uk and my family will later on join me. You see if you look at here we got a lot of numbers. Smugglers, smugglers, smugglers. They got groups on facebook, you know, closed groups so they keep posting, advertising prices, dates, routes, discounts, promotion, you know. Yeah. Sorry. Do you know where Omonia Square is . That way. That way . Five minutes . Sorry, Omonia Square . Right here . Thank you so much. Good evening, sir. Do you know where is the Omonia Square . Five minutes. Thank you so much. Okay, i mean, everybody says five minutes and i dont know whats the meaning of five minutes in greece. car horn honking well, bleep , its better you turn it off. Because they will be. No, please turn it off. Because if they see the camera, if they see me, they wont come. Come on, what are you doing . Okay. Smugglers are criminals. For them i am not a human being. I am 500 or 1,000 or 2,000. I didnt have a choice but to come and work with these people. children shouting time is my worst enemy. Sometimes a minute can change the entire life of you or your family. This is the picture of my little daughter and my wife. You see the building out there . There was a bomb, two little children lost their lives there, in my town. Its about 200 meters from my house. bleep . child yells children chatting coughs horn honks babies crying din of large crowd everybody who is waiting, you cant go there, everybody. No no, sir. No, stay here, stay here. people speaking arabic hundreds of men, women, and children waiting in the rain near the border. The authorities and aid agencies seemed completely unprepared. Croatian authorities are slowing the flow of migrants being allowed in. Refugees. More coming hour after hour. Refugees and migrants have been arriving in croatia. Still pouring into the european union. Problem is a lack of coordination. Blocked their entry to e european union. Whatever limits and quotas e. U. Leaders may have in mind, this influx is continuing. There was no shelter, no food, no warmth for this group, which included many children. laughter children cheering ive never traveled to europe before. I dont know whats the atmosphere towards refugees. It didnt feel like we were welcomed by all of those countries we were going through. We were certainly not welcome. It felt like every country was trying to get rid of us. Just go north and then youll figure it out from there. The backdoor of the van broke because around 26 people were stacked in the van. And in an hour and a half its going to take us into austria. Right now, our van is entering the austrian borders. Its 9 00, the van just dropped us. Were in vienna. I wanted to go to the uk, and it took me around 14 days and im in austria. So yeah, i mean like maximum two more weeks and im. Im going to be in the uk. But i wasnt. laughing with planning my trip to the uk, ive always wanted it to be as quick as possible. Its amazing the view, man. And the system for Family Reunion in the uk is super quick. Once i am given the refugee status, i can get my family easily out of syria, which might take me two and a half years in germany or france. My place was under siege. There was no electricity. The reception towers were all blown up. I spend sometimes two, three weeks never hearing from them. Sorry, im. But its really very urgent that im taking the advantage that shes got reception, so im trying to text her, you know. sighs for first time in month. Hello . Hello . Hello . Hello . Okay. Tamam, tamam. Ciao ciao. line clicks clicks tongue sighs she said i need to hang up because i cant even speak. There are a lot of people around her, you know, and she is very afraid of speaking. Because now shes in a place under the regimes control, you know, and because im stupid, im asking her stupid questions about how is the situation, how is isis and how is. So shes. sighs damn it. So she told me dont speak, type it, so i can type for you, so no one can hear me. sighs i dont know. clicks tongue oh, i really dont know. loud explosion, gunshots explosion local language, local language. Hello, yes, how are you . Its alaigies sister. Yes. Hello. What has happened to alaigie . How long can he be there for . man shouting stay with your family and everybody get in the bus one by one. cheers and applause i feel relaxed because im near to germany. Just one country remains. Austria and then to germany. From germany to sweden, and from sweden to my destination, finland. It is so difficult for the children. We are young and we cannot suffer this cold weather. And for children its too much difficult. babies crying cheering excited chatter ululating laughing thank you, thank you. men shouting, cheering bleep you bleep you cheering, whistling bleep you let us go back, go back. Its tear gas. Welcome to the jungle. I called it the graveyard of hopes or the graveyard of dreams. Because a lot of people, like, they just lose it there. They just dont make it. There was one guy i met, and i was like, so how do i get to england . And he started laughing. He literally started laughing. And he was like, ive been here for a year. And thats when i was like, holy bleep . At first i was like, its okay, its a camp. Whats the worst that can happen . Theres free food and there are showers and toilets, but theres just too much misery in here. The morning time im thinking of how am i going to get into the uk. And then at nighttime im trying to enter the uk. This is good. So basically we climb up there. When i get there i take off my clothes, put them in a plastic bag, i go down and then i get into the water. I swim to the other side till i reach the stairs, dry myself up, put my clothes on, climb up the stairs, wait for the sniffing dogs to be gone and then hide under the trucks. The truck takes me to the ferry, and then the ferry moves. And there you are, uk bound. splashing for a month i had my friends with me. But both of them made it on the same day, and i didnt. And as happy as i was for both of them, in my heart, i was not happy. Theyve made it to the uk. Now im on my own. Before i got close to the ladder, i noticed that there was a maintenance mini boat that had two people on it very close to the ladder. I thought im going to get caught, ill rest tonight and then try again tomorrow night. Walking for around two to three hours every single night, jumping over three fences. Police is everywhere, theyre circling the area. And then getting caught and being sent back to the jungle. That was every single night while i was in calais. Three of those times i was on the train, but i would get caught a minute or two before the train starts moving. I tried the lorries. Thats even harder than the train, because its very dangerous. The truck just started moving. Im just letting you know. Ten minutes ago, and its very, very, very cold, were almost freezing here. Weve been in the lorry for almost nine hours now, full of duracell batteries. Its only three of us, however we think that the truck is going in the wrong direction because its not going towards calais, its going towards paris. Lets just hope that were wrong. cries out sirens blaring i shouldnt have risked my life that much, to be honest. But i was desperate and i had to try everything. I spent 60 days in calais. You never know, maybe like its. My mom tells me that, hassan, maybe youll cross to the uk, or maybe you wont. You wont be successful there. Maybe youll find success somewhere else, so dont just. I dont know. sniffs sighs deeply sniffs i had a friend who told me theres another possible route to the uk. And we wish you a pleasant journey. So i said, all right, i mean if its not going to be awful journey. And he said its very easy. You dont have to climb, you dont have to walk, you dont have to worry, theres no police, theres nothing. You just sit down and you end up in the uk. I said, that easy . He said, yeah, that easy. From inside the boat. Now i am under one of the lorries. Were just waiting so we can sneak. These smugglers, theyve got a set of tools with them. They use the tools, they open the back of the lorry. They put us inside it and they relock it again. The smuggler said, dont move. If you ever move, they will discover you, then police will come. Me and my friends, we spent three full days in the back of that lorry, motionless. And that lorry never moved. We gave up, we said, okay, if at 6 00 pm, if the lorry does not move, we are going to call the police because we cannot stay here anymore. At 3 00, the lorry started moving. And we knew that we are on the ferry somewhere in the sea. Then suddenly the ferry stopped. I closed my eyes and i started crying, and i started thinking of my family, you know, of my wife, and. I said, ive done all this entire journey for my family. Please, i just want to end up in the uk. And we turned on our mobiles, and the first message i got on my mobile was, welcome to the uk. Ive made it, after almost two months from leaving syria. Now i am in the uk, now my dream is coming true. So glad, so happy that i made it. We got out of that lorry. A car stopped and it turned out that they are the police. They came with this very strange accent, i didnt understand what they were saying, hello, fella, how you doing . Its like, you know, good luck, i didnt understand. I said, is this england . Yes, this is england, fella. You know, it was a very different accent. My plan was to get to the uk, and i got here. The next step is to get asylum so i can get my family here safely. And the sooner i get Family Reunion, the sooner my family will be leaving syria. We cannot see. I think its gloomy, yep . Gloomy . Gloomy, yeah. Its called fog. Oh. Yeah, its gloomy. But i hope that in finland should be better than this. Not like this. I like the normal weather. I can see there the refugees. In afghanistan, sweden is a very popular and famous country. And i was feeling very good that im in sweden, in europe. This is me, sadiq, and im in sweden, it was very interesting for me, it was. I had very good feeling. Welcome, man. Okay, thank you. laughing so youre going to finland . Yeah. Okay. Its gonna be cold. Oh. You want . Yeah, thank you, sir. Its cap, and its. We have clothes in the basement. Okay. If you need. Hi. Hi. Hi, welcome. Do you need anything . Over there you have some tshirts. Then you have some jackets. Oh, thank you. laughing oh. Let me to check. Maybe its for gals. Its warm. Now i go to finland. No. I many times told my friends, look how european people are good and kind. Were not working here. They give us everything what we want. This is a kind of chips. laughing he said that it is not tasty. Thats why im trying to eat fast to finish and have with yogurt. laughing many thing is new for me. The culture, the people, it is completely difference from afghanistan. No. Really no tasty. In here is freedom. Freedom of everything. They dont tell us you must be christian. And they are saying for us youre free if you want to pray, if you want to go mosque or what you want to do, youre free. camera clicks here i realize what is equality. train bell dinging it is great because men and women are the same. They are human beings. We have passed ten countries, ten borders, and just one remain. chuckles i have encouraged them to go to finland because it is a nice place, and i have never seen any picture from finland. laughing so, but i know there is a nice place. I believe it. Finland is bigger than germany, but the population is too little, five million. So we want to get there to increase the population of the country. chuckling i dont know here its finland or sweden. Sorry, sir, here is sweden or finland . This is finland, yes. Yes, yeah, it is finnish. Here is finland. men shouting i would never have ever thought of going to england if id know how bad calais was. explosion men shouting i spent the worst days of my life in calais. I bleep hate calais. A friend of mine knows someone who has around nine people from his family who made it to the uk using a fake passport. He gave me his number, i contacted him and he was like, send me your pictures and the passport will be ready in five days. Tomorrow morning, hopefully, ill pick up the passport. If it works it works, if it doesnt work then ive tried everything. Back in syria, every time it rains, my mum would say its a blessful day. So hopefully now that its raining, its all going to go for the best. When i think about my memories, when i think about how syria was. It is very happy memories. laughing and talking but suddenly, this all disappeared. Syria has a long past of dictatorship and. sighs . Corruption and. We did see it coming. We knew it was going to happen. crowd chanting clapping, chanting continue going on protests in syria was like going on a suicide mission. You would go and you may never come back. Suddenly we were surrounded by military intelligence police, fully armed. They had iron poles and as soon as they arrived they were like, give us your phones, and your. sighs like, empty your pockets, throw them on the floor. We did. And they were like, lie down on the floor. We did. And there were around 20 minutes of heavy beating. And they used to hit to deform. They. Its. sighs sighs i, uh. All i used to think about is that i dont want to lose my face. And i was protecting my face with both of my arms until both of them got very, like, badly broken. My wrists were shattered. And they wouldnt stop. They still wouldnt stop. And youre screaming for mercy, or pleading for them to stop, but they just wouldnt. Ive got two of my ribs broken, and my left leg was. Was heavily damaged. After that long session of beating, they took us to the station. sighs they put us in a cell. And things were very ugly there, just. Inhumane on many different levels. sighs sighs im just going to stop for a while. crying sighs deeply i got here my new passport, and heres my new name, fredo nesrova. laughing the smuggler also sent me this via email, which is the boarding pass, the next step. phone ringing oh, sorry. Hello. laughing laughing phone clicks oh, my god. laughing im already freaking out. I shouldnt, but im really, really scared. Fredo, fredo nesrova. This is my neighborhood, this is epsom. Yep, home sweet home. Im living with an english family for the last five weeks. I posted something on facebook, and these people just called me, and said, please, come live with us. Would you like something . Yes, a cup of tea, please. A cup of tea or coffee . Tea, thank you. With milk . Yes. Turning into an englishman. Well, yeah, because first when i arrived i didnt drink the english tea, but now im becoming english. inhales my family are living just near the turkish borders at some point here. North of my place is under isis control. They need to get to lebanon and from lebanon to beirut to get to the British Embassy to have an interview for Family Reunion. And within 24 hours to leave lebanon back to syria. Theyre not allowed to stay in lebanon. So they will finish the interview, and then go back to syria again until they hear about the decision of. Their application has been accepted or rejected. Its a very dangerous, horrible journey. recording hello, daddy. Daddy. Eva. My daughters voice. chuckling you know. Oh, gosh. sighs indistinct chatter cabin alert dings plane engines powering up cabin alert dings across the world, so many people are fleeing their countries. Some are fleeing war. Some are fleeing poverty. They all have something in common, which is looking for somewhere safe to live. I am a refugee. I just look like you. Ive got a family, ive got dreams, ive got hopes, ive got a home. You know, ive got everything, literally nothing different from you people. I just want a peaceful life away from violence. Hey anyone can become a refugee, anyone. Its not something which you choose, its something that happens to you. And just like it happened to me, it could happen to you. birds chirping i was one of the 1. 1 Million People who crossed into europe in 2015. I am hassan, hassan from syria. Ladies and gentlemen, welce to the united kingdom. The local time is. announcement fades away go to pbs. Org frontline for more on how the migrant crisis grew and worsened over time. Oh, my god. Read an interview with filmmaker James Bluemel about the making of exodus. Explore frontlines archive reporting on the crisis and what fueled it. Connect to tfrontline community on facebook and twitter, and if stories like this matter to you, then sign up for our newsletter at pbs. Org frontline. The 45th president. The way the game got played in his household was, if you did not win, you lost. The moments that shaped hi. His lawyer taught donald how to come out punching. The battles hes fought. As quickly as the banks loved him, thats as quick as they saw him as a pariah. And the battle he won. Donald trump was somehow finding a way to connect with the people who mattered at that moment. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. And Additional Support from koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation. And laura debonis. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlines exodus is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org. Or call 1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. Youre watching pbs man 1 a messenger from woman 1 the king is dead. Woman 2 your majesty. Victoria im afraid man 2 i know maam but i also know how much courage you have. Man 3 this is not a game man 4 fire victoria if i require advice i will ask for it. Man 5 you are the queen of the greatest nation on earth. Surly you understand what is at stake here. Victoria a great reasonability lies before me. And i assure you i am ready