Episode one begins as hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria arrive in the Turkish port of Izmir. We meet 11 year old Isra’a, selling black-market cigarettes so that her extended family can pay smugglers to take them across the Mediterranean on a dinghy. But as they hear stories of more and more people drowning, her father Tarek is no longer sure if he can risk his children’s lives.
Meanwhile, 27 year-old Hassan, who is fleeing imprisonment and torture in his native Damascus, is desperate to make the crossing at all costs. He puts his life, and those of his travelling companions, in the hands of smugglers and boards a dinghy. As the over-crowded boat begins to take on water, the passengers face a life and death decision.
In Syria, we film 24 year-old Anas as he prepares to leave the shattered city of Aleppo, with snipers firing at his departing taxi as he heads towards the Turkish border. And we meet Ahmad who, having left his wife and young family behind, is racing to get to Britain so he can get them out of their besieged town in Syria. But he’s stalled on Kos, as the Greek island is overwhelmed and the authorities struggle to cope.
Filmed by both production and the refugees themselves, the result is a terrifyingly intimate, yet uniquely epic portrait of the biggest movement of people that Europe has seen since World War Two.
Episode 2 – Wednesday 17 August at 23.20 on RTÉ One
With his wife and young daughters trapped in Syria, time is of the essence. In Calais, his first attempt to cross the Channel almost results in suffocation in a flour tanker. But he refuses to give up on Britain.
Also leaving Athens is 24 year-old Sadiq from Afghanistan (pictured) fleeing Taliban repression and violence, and heading to Finland, a country that he’s not even seen in a picture.
Meanwhile, 11 year-old Isra’a and her family of 16 people, including babies and her severely disabled sister, are approaching the Serbian border. They are shocked by the total chaos that greets them and are forced to spend hours in the mud and pouring rain with no certainty that they will be able to continue their journey to Germany.
Filmed by both production and the refugees themselves, the result is a terrifyingly intimate yet uniquely epic portrait of the biggest movement of people that Europe has seen since World War Two.
Episode 3 – Thursday 18 August on RTÉ One at 23.20
Following his father’s death, Alaigie’s dreams of becoming an engineer were shattered and he needed to earn money to support his family. We follow his dangerous journey through Africa via a network of smugglers, at the mercy of thieves and violent border guards and across the Sahara in overloaded trucks to Tripoli. But instead of getting on a boat as expected, Alaigie is kidnapped, and a ransom is demanded. His family in Gambia struggle to raise the money to pay.
Meanwhile, Syrian Kurd Ahmad’s attempt to be smuggled into Britain in the back of a lorry finally pays off, and he is sent to Wakefield while his asylum claim is processed. He’s desperate to be granted Leave to Remain so that he can bring his wife and young daughters out of Syria. With their home town under attack from Daesh (so-called Islamic State) and the Assad regime, the clock is ticking for him to get them to safety.
And 27 year-old Hassan, who survived the sinking of his dinghy in the Mediterranean, has reached Calais and the infamous Jungle. But every attempt to board a train or lorry is thwarted and his spirits fall as he sees his friends succeed in crossing the Channel. In desperation he tries to fly to the UK on a fake Czech passport, but the final few miles proves the hardest to travel.