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looking guy r t w dot com the germans. are a lot of come back. in twenty seven take more than one hundred fifty thousand refugees and migrants crossed into europe mostly via the mediterranean to italy but the greek islands also saw new arrivals. were prepared for anything nothing's changed here more than three thousand people died trying to make it the others ended up in so-called reception centers has said you know we feel like animals are not human as . italy and greece cannot cope with the influx of refugees the e.u.

is also at a loss. its feet that there's no notion that this is a joint european responsibility doesn't opihi you shouldn't provide cash it needs internal structures instead the u.s. making controversial deals with third party states like you and the heads of government are trying to seal off the european union to stop if possible any refugees reaching the e.u. one europe is divided over how to deal with the crisis now the force of the idea of solidarity remains a difficult issue why can't the e.u. get the refugee crisis under control. on the greek island of samar side join frank rockety and his team from the german federal police have been patrolling the waters between greece and turkey for the

european border agency frontex and when it comes to it saving lives. what are you expecting when you set off fifteen and we're prepared for anything that's nothing's changed here there's still people smuggling and migrant boats arriving and we see it all. frank rockety switches off the light so people smugglers can spot his vessel the greek liaison officer is also on board a radio message comes in almost straight away the. better for her right. back. maybe this is a turkish coast guard whether operating close to border and picking up some migrants. with fellow we are on the way.

charlie we have to assist there sawyer they have a boat with migrants and need our help be a soirée is a ship manned by portuguese police also working for frontex and we've just had a call to say that the portuguese patrol boat which is also part of the operation here i discovered a boat with migrants but somehow the turkish coast guard is also involved we're heading over there to see what's up the portuguese of us that's for assistance of people to look at the bridge in march twenty sixth seen the turkish coast guard also boosted its presence in the waters between turkey and the greek islands to intercept refugees and migrants before they reach europe and put off others trying to follow suit but with. this one what is going back now is now into. yes the one moving through the roof. of the white house with john navigation lights it does. now the lights of the other boats have also come into sight

with the start of a vessel up front there are three of those on the it is the other one a migrant boat i'd say so yeah it's being lit up with i'm going to. believe it will go in front of it. so much and offered me a rubber crammed full of refugees has reached greek water has their own so children of all the police are trying to avert a disaster but the refugees surrounded by police boats become panic stricken down which in the center calls for the treacherous cliffs. card you know holding up their children. if it's quality dangerous for them to land. but they're not stopping. for those like their mother tell them where germany yes they should stop the boat it's not simple stop the guns i'm falcon's i know what idiots i should stop you'll be going on i mean.

for the refugees it's hard to tell exactly which coast guard they're dealing with. they won't stop but they're in danger if they come to the cliffs. that you're caught. off. we want to let you know we are from greece all. last night you're saying i don't. know nothing you. are going to stop it's getting too shallow. many refugees calm swim and i can see the cliffs in the dark and the police officers don't understand one thing and shouting. but what happens when they when they are. on the rocks and sand box ok we just can watch them you know i cannot go and you closer to the goals and does the work i know this well. so

. we have we have to watch them and. otherwise we have to do it first cliff rescue operation if there are some of them in the water. there's a harbor entrance yet although i hope it's a harbor you know what they're like. so this is a hotel or something like this. we have to also take care of them that they don't jump into the water. the refugees reach europe via the hotel beach terrace. as though it's sheer madness they thought we were going to grab them and drive them back to turkey. i don't know who tells me such nonsense and they believe it could putting their lives in danger. just something that a boat another climbing up there in storming the hotel.

we've lit up their cars with searchlights so that they can land safely and no one dies in the process but now the boat has disappeared and the people to think we've just radio dot colleagues from the frontex land border patrol. we've told them to pick up the people and bring them to safety. and they can be quickly. on a normal basis really necessary. for now the refugees journey has ended in a camp and has some os town on the e.u. pressure greece has created so-called hot spots on the islands to process new arrivals this is where the asylum applications are assessed. in march twenty sixth dean turkey and the e.u. signed a controversial deal according to which ankara agreed to take back anyone who had managed to cross into europe from turkey it's led to a significant drop in newcomers the number of new arrivals fell from over two

hundred thousand in october twenty fifteen to under two thousand in march twenty seventeen but since july they've been on the rise again. this camp was intended to accommodate eight hundred but by late september twenty seventeen it housed two thousand four hundred we are refused access no one here wants the film teams to record the chaos down of the harbor i meet refugees who complain about conditions in the camp. and in our situation is difficult down here we see how good life can be but up there it's like a prison. we feel like wild animals not humans you should come and see the children freeze at night and we can't get any blankets for them while. the tiny tents don't protect us from the sun in the cold at night there are four of us showing a blanket. and there's often no water but. the un

refugee agency confirm that blankets are not being properly distributed that water supplies are frequently interrupted for hours aid workers are concerned about outbreaks of infectious diseases the photographs the camp well as give me show families with small children also living in tents and makeshift shelters in twenty fifteen the e.u. pledged to help greece and italy the plan was to redistribute some ninety eight thousand asylum seekers among other e.u. member states but well under a third of that number had actually been relocated by autumn twenty seventeen the greeks feel let down and have barely drawn on extra e.u. funds to expand the camps and improve conditions most greek island as opposed to get. and more permanent facilities they don't see why they should shoulder the e.u.'s refugee problem alone his local man no longer believes the relocation system will be implemented. the islands of the northern jian cannot stand anymore to have

hotspots because accommodation fastbreak which is a condition said qualities doctors administration cost guard policeman i think that some member states are covered there's no marks behind the situation and not accepting if you g.'s not fulfilling their grim and at the will sign. a straight just over a kilometer wide separates the greek island some hours from turkey in twenty sixteen the turkish coast guard intercepted almost forty thousand refugees and took them back to turkey part of the deal between brussels and ankara i want to find out how refugees are being treated in turkish camps. i'm given access to a facility that chancellor merkel visited a model camp funded by the e.u. but i'm not allowed to speak freely to the refugees instead the turkish authorities

introduced me to a syrian couple who have been living here in container accommodation with their three children for the last five years so. i used to work in construction or syria as an electrician and there's a lot of building going on in turkey at the moment i've also found work as an electrician here. and we have a good life air we have everything we need. we're not lacking anything there's a school in a kindergarten for our children from brussels has promised to transfer total of six billion euros to turkey to help the three point five million refugees there as well as money europe is offered in exchange deal turkey takes back any asylum seekers who get to greece in return for each syrian return to turkey europe has promised to accept an additional syrian from turkey however by autumn twenty seventeen the e.u. had officially resettled some eleven thousand people from turkey while only two hundred sixteen had been sent back and greece saw twenty one thousand new arrivals

. human rights organizations continue to oppose the return of asylum seekers and refugees to a country where they say they can't be given effective protection but in late september the greek supreme court upheld the ruling that turkey was a safe country allowing forcible returns activists say that this is a breach of their right to apply for asylum in the e.u. the deal only creates losers says turkish professor of medicine chairman tatty who helps refugees wanting to leave turkey. really the deal between the e.u. and turkey has turned turkey into an open prison which under ten percent of refugees are housed in camps. most refugee children don't attend school and that hinders women from integrating into society. most adults in fact they don't speak any turkish at all. if they do find

a job most don't have any kind of legal protection pension rights or insurance that . they are quite simply being exploited. children. until twenty sixteen you are rivals and people smugglers met openly in the bassman a district of his mere bad since the e.u. turkey deal this is the end of the line for thousands of syrians adnan chad has sent his family were stranded here after fleeing the war in syria a family of five now live in an old shack. welcome to our home. this is where we sleep if tend the couch into three beds the others sleep on the floor and use the cushions this the mattress. we live in a small apartment it's the will of allah and that is our kitchen. their son tomorrow also lives here like the rest of the family he was traumatized

by the war and fears he was the victim of a poison gas attack or thirty. or thirty that i don't work here or sit around because i got a bad hand. of them did you go to the doctors to get them yes but i only have a paper id i don't have a proper id card the doctor told me that i had to wait until i had one otherwise he wouldn't get paid honest. but no one can tell tomorrow when his documents when i arrive at least his sister cafe has found a job she helps out in a clothing factory. in some soup of telstra no one is supporting us and i can't do it alone. as soon as my son is old enough i'll find him a job he'll have to help for me it's already clear that my someone go to school and

he'll work as soon as he's a bit older told me. the answer is no matter how much my daughter works she can't earn enough to support us all. she shows me just how many tablets her husband has to take. we want to go to another country where the boy and his father will get treatment for. the e.u. turkey deal was intended to provide a breathing space so long term solutions could be found but in turkey the agreement to spark despair among refugees and in greece has sparked anger and chaos. the german government's plan was largely the brainchild of think tank founder get called klaus. that's ashdown. the most astonishing thing about this crisis from the outset was held orten european institutions panicked and made pledges only as a result of pressure from the public and extremely high statistics. just one it

looked like the crisis might be under control again in the moment interest in solving concrete problems seem to start when you get in the moment. the problem is that we currently have in principle an unreformed only with asylum and border system and that. we now have an equal border and coast guard agency but we still lack the ability to quickly process asylum applications and we have the dublin system which basically means that everyone who arrives in greece has to stay there and that provides little incentive for the greek authorities to improve the conditions for refugees and for the. e.u. interior ministers have been squabbling over reforms to the dublin regulation for well over a year now it's stipulates that the e.u. state on which asylum seekers first set foot has to process their asylum claims at the e.u. interior ministers conference in october i asked the german interior minister why asylum seekers are not being relocated to all member states.

but i know you are trying to negotiate a new asylum system for over a year why the lack of progress now if you force us to solidarity continues to be a tricky issue and it's important that the refugees who are allocated to a certain european state don't simply move to another country because the conditions might be better in the tri color that secondary migration and we have to make more headway there and that's the form i still aim to wrap things up as soon as possible one of the heads of government have given us until the end of twenty seventeen to make headway. have some and we're also striving for that but substance is more important than speed. i'm going to get all fortunately i got instead of castor free on the greek islands why is he doing anything this is a nation of well that's primarily a job for the greek authorities and if greece needs support they'll get it off and . everyone just shifts the blame on to the opposite gets the e.u.

commissioner for migration dimitris are provided european interior ministers with proposals on how to refer. form the common asylum system back in twenty sixteen the idea is to redistribute asylum seekers across all member states but the greek e.u. official was unable to push through this pan-european solution and his country is unable to cope alone i mean by the situation of other refugees on the greek island is horrible again mr timmins yes said this is a problem of greece is he right it is true to say that the minister of migration of greece today from the warring increase of rivals during the last two weeks even so the numbers. what's happening in italy so. we want support we want to go. present so the good will to go willing to contribute to finding

a solution because they're eager to accused so do continue believing it is happening. here on the eve of the hope so politicians are still clinging to the deal with ankara does that mean it should serve as a blueprint for agreements with other third party states. italy summer twenty seventeen the german frigate mecklenburg for comment made an unscheduled stop in the sicilian town of our on board refugees from libya rescued by the german armed forces whose real mission it is to arrest people smugglers instead they've come across the most vulnerable people of all children. and. they're almost one hundred men from we only have five women with us and just over fifty children who are traveling alone to king novel fun of hostility

a line of ice fifty unaccompanied miles yes if that is that in your experience or is it normal to find so many children who are traveling alone in the water i thought of you. as one in principle it's something you can expect to encounter. but i have to say that these children are always passed along from one adult to the next but they don't have any proper relatives or parents with them and east of the eyes of a bike there to deal with the migrant problem alone italy approached libya's un recognized government and offered to help it build up a coast guard which would return migrants to libyan soil could lead to a drop in new arrivals. to me over recent months and years we've seen the situation here change with every season. it's very dynamic when. we cannot depend on the scituate. remaining stable at a much today we're expecting a lot of refugees and over the last few days seven hundred people were picked up by

the libyan coast guard and returned to libya. to either jordan they come from senegal chad congo nigeria and ivory coast very few have a realistic chance of being granted asylum nonetheless most will remain in italy for a long time many don't have passports making deportation practically impossible. some seventy five percent of all migrants and refugees arriving in the e.u. in twenty seventeen came to italy via libya and this is syrian city of palermo i meet a group of refugees from somalia they are relieved to have escaped the horrors of libya but it appears that you make in libya for me. the bad time for my life in the thousands before i mean somebody there is war. there is killing for if we did a some like that but there's no one who could lobby you and i stood for you one minute you know you were doing what out with the genesee just

like nancy and sometimes do if you don't pay for them and. the you has banked italy's initiative to help libya intercept the refugees but while the situation in italy has eased the chaos and despair have increased in north africa. sicily his biggest refugee camp carminow now has spare capacity. palermo's man has frequently stood up for the rights of refugees in the past. he blames the agreement with libya on european ignorance. a little but they have a sort of europe have to show solidarity with you and if it isn't about solid hours i thought i'd ask myself what europe stands for if the e.u.

doesn't define itself through the recognition of human rights is one of the then it's just a financial union. and it is just a financial union i donated to pretty i'd rather excel states from the e.u. that don't respect the rights of migrants and send migrants away if you notice but we did it when you got. in june twenty seventeen a u.n. report once again highlighted the fact that migrants were being subject to grave human rights abuses in libya including executions torture deprivation of food and water and encipherment. nonetheless italy continues to pursue the agreement with libya and even got backing from the european heads of state and government they met with opposition from some members of the european parliament who wanted an internal european solution for the problem i spoke to the co-chair of the greens in the european parliament scott keller and asked her the reason for this approach. starts

unlike you who says the heads of state and government are trying to seal off the european union to stop any refugees getting in on its dressed up as tackling the root causes of the problem but the refugees still exist they just don't get as far as you're honest but end up stranded in lebanon or turkey or wherever. you are working with third party states to prevent them from getting here it's the real crisis began in twenty fifteen and still nothing has happened what's your view on that and us at the heart just voted in favor of a report that proposes a radical rethink the parliament is calling for a fair redistribution of refugees across all member states all member states have to take part and of course it's very important to consider existing family ties for example to help with integration. i voted to cut the parliament has decided but why have no resolutions been passed that as the answer you've clearly got

a massive problem in the national seats of government european migration policy is languishing because member states aren't prepared to work together and show solidarity with one another and with the refugees with people seeking protection to fifteen as mature men mention. decisive action is needed from european heads of government to forge a new e.u. migration policy they've been looking for solutions for well over a year but countries like poland and hungary still refuse to accept asylum seekers from italy or greece so euro skeptic governments are calling the shots in brussels . at the e.u. used to rector a general for migration and home affairs civil servants are quietly working behind the scenes seeking solutions that all member states can agree to what's the main sticking point i ask the head of the directorate materials we tell. them is here and we have to make sure that those who are really in need of protection get that

protection so it's the second thing that all migrants who have no right to stay in europe and they start deported you know. so we could feud but thirdly that we exploit the great possibilities of posting illegal migration you've got so on the first or isn't there a danger that precisely those countries who haven't shown solidarity in the past will determine the pace of migration policy system is of midsomer that's why as far solidarity goes it will probably have to build compromise as so that ideally all or at least the great number of member states will be able to agree to them. and and if the currently it's like trying to align a rubik's cube i think that we've now got all the pieces lined up and ready to turn in the right direction. but we need the right backing from our bosses and in the thing working for all those shifts because that's. if you haven't got that.

we don't have it for most of them but i'd like to get it from a few others guns going off on partner. at the meeting in brussels on october twenty seventh team the big question of how europe should deal with refugees in the future remained unanswered heads of government were only able to agree on short term assistance for example in supporting italy's deal with libya the president of the e.u. council justified the slim pickings because of europe's need to remain united. we have just got to get it over this question about migration and to help manage the third element that the you know the. prime minister stronger. at this early leaders decided to come back to the issue of doubling the reform.

with if you're reaching. in the first half of twenty and i would like to state very clearly that. if. the go the end of european. growth is in fact our most important threat. blocked by national interests be e.u. is unable to make headway instead it has postponed a decision once again and refugees are paying the price. the fast pace of life in the digital shift has the lowdown on the web showing new

developments and providing useful information the wittiest finds and interviews with makers and users. shifts next on d w. patients nicky has no children which makes her feel worthless and incomplete. in a society that expects them to be children this is a burden many married yet childless women in niger suffer from. a wife is only fully accepted upon. a very personal film about the suffering of childless women in. the fruitless tree starting january fourteenth on d w. c.