Exodus: Our Journey to Europe (Episode One)

Synopsis

In 2015, over a million people left war-torn countries and sought a better life in Europe. Fleeing from conflict, poverty and persecution from Syria and elsewhere, a number of individuals were given cameraphones by the BBC production team to film their journeys and tell their own personal stories. This was partly due to a lack of access for the filming crew, as the families attempting to reach Europe travelled on inflatable dinghies when crossing from Turkey to Greece, in the backs of lorries when entering the Eurotunnel, or on open trucks when driven by people smugglers across the Sahara. We follow the stories of an 11-year-old girl in Syria who sells items on the black market, 27-year old Hassan who is fleeing imprisonment and torture in his native Damascus, and 24-year old Anas who must leave his home city of Alepoo behind. ‘Exodus: Our Journey to Europe’ is an intimate account of the extraordinary struggles refugees face across the world, putting a human face on the story of the biggest displacement of people in the continent since World War Two.