From your times, I Michael borrow this. Is the daily. A few weeks ago, my colleague, brussels biagi, latina status. Credit received a tip that, if would prove that a major european government was carrying, in a legal skip. The delay Whitley risk the lives of civilians as you as six months. All today story of how martina proved the tipp was true it's Wednesday june. Seventh Martina! This story starts for you with a tip right, so tell us about that type.

That's right, Michael I'm just sitting in the bureau in brussels at my desk, and I get this email from a man. I've never heard off before, and he says that he has shot very revealing video on the greek island. of less boss. Sharing the greek authorities, rounding up migrants and effectively dropping them in a life raft in the middle of the aegean sea? Practically this means these people can't access the countries asylum system they basically never existed as far as formalities are concerned, and if what this tipster is claiming his captured and video is correct. That would be a gross

violation of both local law and european union law, but also international legislation. Weight to this tipster has delivered The extraordinary and it sounds like explosive claim. It sounds explosive, but am also sort of instinctively quite it and to immediately believe him, and the reason is we ve heard about this alleged practice by the greek authorities. In the past, multiple muse organizations have tried to prove that is going on, but the evidence hasn't really being their up until that moment, so I'm sort of also partly bracing than it might not be real actually. So tell us what you see when you watch this video, so the video in total is more than three, hours long, but I quickly get to the pardon and partisan immediately I notice that sort of clearly be

taken around midday exactly like the man who shot had set a wise and also recognise the landscape. I've been to lesbos myself. I've worked there and It looks familiar and what you see is this unmarked white van, no windows no plates. Nothing. Driving down a narrow dirt road toward the coast and at stops and three men. We're not wearing uniforms or just wearing sort of dark clothes and ski masks. You can't see their faces to thee unlock the back of the van and then I see a total of twelve people coming out of the van one by one and some of them strikingly Obviously, small children, is even an months old infant and a lot of women.

There's only two men and that group. So all of these things really stand out to me. Now the three masked men escorted the girl down the road to this picturesque little boy. That has a wooden peer and a larger, and laid a ball engine speedboat is waiting for. m there and one by one, the people who are At this point. I am realising obviously africans and you can see that some of the women have their heads covered was scarves their put one by one onto the speed, but

aids and the speed by turns around and speeds out at sea. He within two minutes. It approach is a greek coastguard vessel and that's where I start feeling quite shocked, because this clearly starts to indicate these masked men cooperating with the greek coastguard right. This is the greek government suddenly entering this video exactly it's the first time, I'm any markings of the states- are visible in the video and so that the speedboat pulls up next to the coastguard. Vessel. That's stopped at

see and the camera zooms in slow blurry. But you can still see quite well one by one, the people being escorted, add on the coastguard vessel and you see the coastguard vessel navigating further away from the glass boss coastline. So at this point what you have seen are masked men, removing these twelve people from a van with no license plates or markings, putting them on a speedboat one by one and then that boat run bowing with a greek government ship, which then takes these twelve people, and this is all happening in the middle of a and

broad daylight and at some point, the coastguard boat, with the twelve migrants on it stops and quite quickly. You see sort of black inflatable life raft being dropped off the videos blurry the distances quite big, but you can still make out the life raft floating behind the coastguard boat and soon after the boat believes the life raft adrift. Turns around and starts cross through the bay back toward lesbos So what do you understand too? Have just happened. You save him, though. I can't see the trial

migrants on this inflatable life raft. I believe that they are on that life raft and they've been left adrift in the middle of the aegean sea and sure enough that belief, was quickly reinforced because about an hour and a half further, the video I see to turkish coastguard vessels approaching the life raft in what seems to be a rescue. The life raft has been left to drifts, sort of half way between the island less was in greece and the turkish coast, and so it becomes clear that their life raft was left to drift into turkish territorial waters by the greek coastguard.

Right, not at all by accident, but in this deliberate effort to keep as use said, as this tipster suggested you, these migrants, from ever entering the greek immigration system exactly and of course, Turkey is a member of the european union so now the Migrants are unjust out of greek territory there also out of EU territory. So what are you thinking after? You have finished watch? That's pretty unsettling video. What michael, I'm thinking that the tipster was right that what he said had he got in video is Video, but working to do a lot of work to verify it, and time is of the essence as those videos.

wait two days old and we want to move fast. We believe these people, the twelve migrants, must still be somewhere in turkey, and so we get a reporter that we work with in a key to confirm that they are being held in a removal facility, a sort of prison where migrants are taken before being deported in the coastal city of is mere and I fly to as mirror to meet them and interview them, and what do you find when you get to this prison? As soon as I say? then I have no doubt on my mind that they are the same people as the people. I saw on the video why the composition of the group, their physical attributes, the presence of the small children and the baby all are consistent with a video but honestly

of them were still wearing the same clothes more than a week later. I particularly remember being struck by a young woman who was wearing a turquoise he job and a black and white, checked, shirt She really stood out in the video and there she was standing right in front of me in this detention facility in turkey. First of all, we really appreciate their time. You can just explain to them that we have this video. That shows what happened to them and what's the story that these people tell you, are they all, together, friends or maybe together. So in order to interview them, we have to patch and translators and guy counted, there's a total of nine people in downright yeah. The first person, the lady with the turquoise colored job, is not in your place. An endless. Let us use the mother of seven of those kids

yeah, and one of the first things we were able to establish is that they weren't in fact all family members, but they do all come from the same part of the world. They come from the hornet, africa. There is a nephew, p and eritrean and to mothers with children, and they come from. Somalia Can we to somalia security situation? That is what they were and really their stories are the stories of that region and and just how badly security safety have collapsed over the last few here I'm gonna, go to somalia, slogger sought for weeks and bore the youngest mother, I must. She comes from the southern part of somalia that is held. entirely by terrorist group called thou shalt, bob she's fleeing somalia, with her six month old baby

boy waller and every story that we here is some How related to the hardship these people are facing in their home countries and the very complex, brutal ways that they have had to make their migration towards europe? And what did these migrants tell you about how they all ended up in that white unmarked fan? So, let's start by talking about what happened last week, first of all. Well, they say that they had arrived on the greek island of lesbos after paying smugglers, to get there in two separate groups. They had an met before being locked into the back of that

I used to say that they enter degrees. They arrived on the island during nightfall, it was nighttime and after arriving on, lesbos was the middle of the night. It was dark, so they sheltered in the woods that night and as a result, while they were taking shelter in those woods, that's when the men with the masks came across them when they sought refuge in the brush close to the coastline, and they were confronted by masked men and the women, and children, in fact, were told by these men that they were rescue workers that they worked for the famous medical charity, doctors without borders, mass men, the mess men introduced themselves clean as doctors claiming to be doctors, medical staff to assistant. It quickly became clear. That was a total lie when the men saw them all. The women were, their jobs were ripped off of their heads. They were stripped down, their pants were forced to be taken off of them,

including the children and their money and planning. Any values will be also taken away by the men. Ok, the masked men took their money, their mobile phones, any documents they had on down. Rounded, a mop and a little later are the two young men who had been apprehended in a separate operation by the masked men were also thrown into that white van with the women and the children, and that's where the testimony from the migrants leads us up to what we we're seeing on the video he's going to take a pause now cause. I think we need to let these people go. The kids are tired and they're very tired, listen if you can tell them. First of all. Thank you very much and also that I'm really sorry about what happened to them. what

I mean, so this payment, you know, what's your level of confidence that This is exactly what this tipster out of the blue emails you about says it is at this point, Michael I'm, a hundred percent shore- and I am also a hundred percent sure that's not how the european union asylum system is supposed to work. I feel very confident that we have the most solid evidence ever presented that the greek authorities are involved then a crime.

I'll, be back. Hey it's Anna Morton from the new york times, and I m here to tell you about something new, something for new york times: news subscribers and honestly, if you're Pakistan you're going to want this, it's an app How the new york times audio. Will you can the latest dispatch its tat? I am in kiev, pussy, really nice perfect, you technique a splash ashore ass a man. A lot of red pepper, flakes contemplate the future. A computer program is passing the bar. Zob, we're over your pretending, not to be amazed by the has exclusive shows from the new york times. It's the headlines retiring from cereal productions in this american life to a fiasco involving a village? riding visigoths, and some oil sports from the athletic

those big moments. He puts the team miles back, narrated articles in the times and beyond. In recent years the unexpected sounds of ice have periodically gone viral. times, audio download it now end my times doc slash, audio. but why would greece do this to migrants that enter its country? Why would it brazenly violated the law but above all, treat people like this? risking their lives to avoid having them entered, is: is immigration system as asylum seekers, but Michael There is a long, nearly decade old story as to how we get to the point of the greek authorities. Treating migrants like this Perhaps we will remember that around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen because of the huge displacement caused by the civil war in

We are more than one million syria, mainly, but also iraqis tried to me their way to europe to seek refuge fleeing those conflicts? I was there myself in twenty fifteen on the greek island of lesbos, as thousands and thousands of refugees arrived on a daily basis. Greece was just the first stop for these people, trying to get to europe and get to safety and by all accounts. Greeks at that time were incredibly generous. The greek coastguard. The very same coastguard was saw that vessel ditching people in the aegean sea that coastguard was rescuing hundreds of people S, day and helping them along their way huh. So it was a completely different, sure I mean the residents of the greek islands of the aegean, their received those refugees were even put up for a nobel peace prize for

their generosity, thou media documented their extraordinary generosity in reaction to helping people in need is so what changed. While Michael at that time famously then, german chancellor Angela Merkel, said we will manage and she are opened her countries border is to receive more than one million syrian and iraqi refugees in the space of months. Many humans are rolling out a cheering red carpet. Welcome for refugees and If anyone here? Thank you. Thank you. So much thank you'll, let them medical thank you so much deutschland, but that generosity dried up quickly and abruptly. It is not just the bavarian weather that is growing. I see the welcome now.

Germany's southern border is much colder. Germany has reintroduced checks at its border with Austria in an attempt to better control of the huge number of migrants and refugees arriving germany closed its borders, and so did most of the other european union countries Austria is a small country beyond this is common so by refugees kept coming and any of them and did job in greece stock on those islands for months and months, we are in a big prisoners. Island cannot go to other cities. We can have a job, but cannot? I don't know what people are getting more problems ahead, so they languished in greece in many cases in terrible can actions on the island of lesbos, another neighbouring islands condition.

and tat. You wouldn t see in some of the poorest countries in the world to civil liberties. I will call you didn't in it in this respect. We live our quantity. I live here in a tent without any accommodation beyond human? It was really very confronting for the small communities on the greek islands, such as the island of lesbos that were hosting often dozens of thousands of people in their midst. So what

reaction from these greek people, especially on these islands, to the fact that greece is no longer a stop on the way to the rest of europe for these migrants, but now kind of a permanent destination and an end of the journey rather than the beginning. The squalor of the conditions just made. The local communities feel that asylum seekers should not be in greece at all and that informed government policy.

It's my now. Well, the greek government realise that, even though the huge numbers of particularly syrian refugees that we had seen around twenty fifteen and twenty two sixteen, even though the numbers of asylum seekers arriving in greece later were much much smaller, just a fraction. In fact, that was still too many, because the local community, greek voters didn't want these people there, and so they developed much tougher tougher line towards asylum seekers. and part of that tougher line was a harsher approach to them right at the borders so that they never even enter the greek asylum system effectively.

We saw in our video and through our investigation, was the most extreme version of that policy that these people were sent back so that it was like they were. Never even there. But you know one obligation in the eyes of the Greek government on the greek people does the larger european union have here, because what you have just laid out is the story of a system that, in the beginning, back and one fifteen absorbed all these migrants in a somewhat proportional, and now is asking greece to shoulder a disproportionate amount of it so What should the eu be doing? Well, the responsibility that the european union has towards greece and their responsibility that greece has toward the european union has being hotly debated in europe. For many many years, certainly the greek athwart,

I believe that the european union should create a much faster and firmer way to determine whether migrants are entitled to asylum or not and should remove them from greek territory distribute them and the rest of the european union nearly instantly. The european union thinks that greece should do a much better job, add welcoming, processing and hosting asylum seekers and, in fact, has put billions behind that demand. It has paid for greece to build better facilities where people can stay while their asylum requests are being, Processed, it has helped the greek government financially and with personnel in guarding its borders. In fact the coastguard vessel we saw in our video in our investigation, effectively vi

late in greek and european law was paid for seventy five percent, by european union funds. As part of that effort to support greece to the stand off here and in the face of this ongoing flow of migrants is as a greece's answer is to take this rather extreme step of forcibly. Putting these migrants out to see that's right, Michael there is a stand off, but there is also a tacit agreement between european union and greece away. Greece is sort of doing europe sturdy business and as long as they don't get caught, the european union has been until now happy to sort of leaded care,

We are in fact the european union and the european commission in brussels. They know greece has been treating migrants harshly potentially illegally. There have been any lawsuits in the european court of human rights. There have been news articles or have been migrant testimonies but until now it has chosen not to punish greece, and the reason for that is that greece is necessary at some point and for europe's migration management. But this incident that we manage to investigate and bring to light may just have been that one step too far. You know what you know we're talking here about greece and we're talking about the EU and the way that their treating these migrants. What we're really talking about is asylum and the nature of asylum, and it strikes me that

The united states has been deliberately restricting asylum now for several years, starting with title forty two during the cove, an emergency and now with a programme to replace it that will make seeking asylum harder and harder. That's clearly what greece and the EU seem to be wanting to do as well make it harder to seek asylum. So what do you make of that fact? that this is going on across these different continents. At the same time, Michael, I think you ve hit the nail on the head. Really, I mean I think, across the sort of so called western world, the developed world. We are seeing that countries are adopting more and more restrictive migration. refugee policies, and that includes the united states and includes the european union, but also a stray leah britain. All of these cases are simply getting tougher on migration more or less at the same time, and to be sure, the? U s still,

sent. Thousands of refugees, the european union has taken and millions of ukrainians fleeing war at its doorstep, but in other ways, we are seeing an erosion of the right to asylum and that just sort of looks different country to country depending on each country's particular parities and conditions, and I think that taking a couple of steps back, those policies appear coordinated, reflects a few trends we ve seen across the developed world. In the last ten years we have seen the rise of native ist politics, but we have also seen the fortunes of people in the developed world deteriorate in some cases where inflation in the cost of living the means of the people who live in the rich world

are feeling like their standards of living are dropping and that's means that generosity of previous decades, a road the same time, though, in the poorer parts of the world, and so many regions, we are more conflict and more hardship, and often in fact the west has had a hand in that. This creates a recipe for disaster, a recipe for abuse, and I guess It's where the story leaves me is wondering whether, where we documented what we uncovered in the case of greece, is it going to prove to be a step too far? Is greece going to be punished for this kind of behavior? or is it going to be eventually met with a shrug and will basically become broader, accept

policy, a kind of new norm in asylum might be literally shipping people out to sea so that they can never seek asylum exactly but you did before we conclude. I want to understand what is likely to become of those twelve people that you mad in that turkish detention centre. They came to greece because they wanted to get asylum within the european union, but they never were allowed to apply. So what do we think is going to happen to them now? Do they have any chance of getting asylum anywhere? Well, call at least two of them have now been released from the detention facility in izmir. The molly women and children may still be in detention. We're not sure by none of them has been able to apply for asylum in the european union. Of course, why?

young man who was on that boat mackey, whose from Ethiopia I've been in touch with them, since our investigation was published he's, released from detention and he's now seriously considering applying for asylum in turkey and despite the different outcome, for each of these people, the one thing that seems to be something we agreed on was that they had been devastated by their experience of trying to get to greece. Marty told me he regretted, even trying to go to greece to get asylum.

Which, for being honest, may be exactly what greece wants him to feel absolutely the antenna. Thank you very much. Thank you michael what do I back? Here's? What else you need to learn on tuesday, a critical down along the front line of ukraine's war with russia was destroyed, triggering massive flooding that put tens thousands of people at risk you cry in an russia. Each accuse the other of blowing up the day at all that's a new pro river in southern ukraine, which held back a body of water, the sun.

of the great salt lake in utah. We have all seen tragic images coming out today if the monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe in the kurdistan region, Ukraine, during a new conference in new york, the secretary of the united nations said that, no matter what cause the disaster the kremlin was ultimately responsible. One thing is clear: this is not the devastating consequences of the russian invasion to today's episode was produced by were shell buncher. Shinin nl in a win with help, Michael Simon Johnson. It was edited by J Davis lit contains regional, music by marian Lozano, damned cow, And ruining MR and was engineered by Chris. Would our theme? Music,

I just wondered, and then man of wonderingly special thanks to fire, yet buddha that's it I Michael Moore see you tomorrow.