his life still around. twenty seven years ago but there's no holding back his dreams. thank you like. a twenty seven. hello and a warm welcome to focus on europe thanks for joining us today the hunt is on in europe for the torturers of syrian dictator bashar al assad's regime investigators are closing in on them thanks to thousands of pieces of evidence that were smuggled by witnesses from the ruins of syrian cities photos and documents are now in the

hands of european investigators their task to prove that the syrian secret service systematically tortured opposition members to death well more than a dozen of these war criminals are believed to be in germany sweden or france disguised as refugees. investigators across europe are determined to identify them and relatives of the victims who fled the murderous regime and came to germany are a valuable source of information people like me have am whom our reporter met on his search for justice. lives in a berlin suburb. she's from syria and part of a major hunt to catch syrian secret service members who committed crimes like these . mari i'm sorry my yard is one of the regime's many victims he was beaten and tortured to death when the syrian civil war broke out. one of his

fellow students even health torture him he had always been very courteous towards iran and greeted him that you know i don't understand how someone could turn into a torturer and become a monster like that no one has what. syria secret service systematically tortured just for speaking up for human rights demanding syria become a democratic country and for urging assad to step down. now eight years after a yobs death his mother wants justice. i want the culprits to be brought to justice from the accomplices all the way up to president assad these people are responsible for spilling our children's blood. there are more than twenty six thousand pictures of syrian torture victims smuggled out of the war torn country by a courageous former police were target for they could help convict syrian torturers

and murderers in the coming years their victims and their relatives demand justice like syrian human rights lawyer mohsen darvish who was tortured before being able to flee the syrian capital damascus is a few months the school itself was the branches you become like this. many of his friends and political allies in the fight against the assad regime were abused like this no one knows how many people lost their lives. so there's some there's some. i think it was i looked for. people in this. security branches. still living on the boyer shared all of his information with european investigators and has joined human rights organizations in pressing charges against former syrian tormentors. european police are currently investigating former assad torturers who fled to

europe disguised as refugees in february one suspect was arrested in france and two others in germany. among them anwar who came to the german capital berlin as an asylum seeker. this is the first phone to be the face of. these cases this is the first time you know this is the first time there is a respectable and the. court judge and we have victim and suspect and he signs the law under the state of florida we don't have it and see if. we have seen documents showing that germany's federal office of criminal investigation has investigated on more hours suspected involvement with the syrian secret service we have asked the syrian embassy in berlin for a statement it refused to comment. they could be that the prosecution of syrian

torturers seems to be gathering momentum in europe. where at the secret investigative bureau somewhere in europe where bill wiley of the commission of international justice and accountability is working hard to catch syrian criminals . used to hunt war criminals as a un prosecutor now he has access to a vast archive of syrian state documents that could prove crucial in catching assad's henchmen basically. what you have in this room are materials generated by the security intelligence structures of sure the military structures of syria and the party or political structures of syria at the top level and that the government lovell's here they are the files documenting the crimes of the syrian regime they have been meticulously cleaned scanned and logged and carefully analyzed by several dozen investigators. the u.n.

trials on crimes committed in former yugoslavia and on the rwandan genocide wiley one thing without a paper trail it is very difficult to bring culprits to justice. that's why these syrian state documents which were smuggled out of the country i made it to mulch of a civil war are so valuable. they comprise interrogation reports and many other files that document figures within the security apparatus. that systematically tortured people they also shed light on suspected syrian torturers like anwar or. how many. people would be very. were. more senior ranks if you are. maybe one or several people were. you don't humans can imagine that there are.

there could be more you're. sure more serious whether the. uk whose son was murdered by the syrian secret service hopes that not only the killers of her son will be caught but all perpetrators that have gone into hiding will meet justice for her the hunt has just begun. for couples struggling to conceive the journey to parenthood and be heartbreaking but for some their struggle has become a lucrative business surrogacy is booming in ukraine where increasingly more women are offering to carry the children of complete strangers all the country is one of europe's poorest and surrogacy can offer a way out of poverty a reporter visited a clinic in cock have that specializes in these pregnancies. boma

but only a strong shave units. when she moves i talk to her or you know you were in the evening when i read stories to my children and i do the same for the baby born in la you know when you can you talk us where you it's late february twenty ninth teen an italian is nine months pregnant with a baby girl it's not her child she's a surrogate mother she's carrying the baby for parents from germany. it won't be long now. it's such a joy to hold your own child for the first time. i'll be happy for them. natalia his own children are visiting her today for the final months of the pregnancy natalia has to live close to the clinic in kharkiv normally she lives with her children and her partner dimitra in a town some fifty kilometers away. this is own attalia makes money there is

virtually no work to be had here dimitri overruns the equivalent of about two hundred euros is that which that of course we aim to give our own children a good start in life. it's not easy to find work here and to support a family. that we made this decision and so our children will be better off. because sure. the tell you hopes to pay for her children's education and to become self-employed she's not the first surrogate mother in her town an acquaintance told her she could make a living by helping other couples to have children but many questions remain some practical but also psychological. you know what it's interesting the baby hears russian the whole time inside my belly but then becomes a german child. i tell you has to say

goodbye to her own family for now. while we say hello to grandma for me. couples from all over the world come to this clinic on the outskirts of kharkiv among them the german couple whose baby daughter natalia is scary they wouldn't talk on camera fearing they would be recognized at home. another woman from germany did talk to us we'll call her ana she's in her early forty's and is unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization six times she and her husband refused to consider adopting a surrogate mother for a donor egg cell was the only option left in germany that's illegal ana sees this as hypocritical in germany surrogacy is prohibited even though many well known and wealthy people do so and then the youth welfare office treats you like the worst criminals ever these cases are lucrative for the clinic in hockey

the doctor in charge explains that a surrogate pregnancy with a donor egg brings in at least thirty thousand euros sometimes twice that amount and depends on the specific needs and wishes of the parents ukraine hosts a few hundred surrogate pregnancies each year he says with demand growing customers are coming from as far away as latin america and australia. more and more are coming in ukraine has become a popular destination for would be parents for what they'd have to pay for just one attempt in the u.s. we guarantee a healthy pregnancy here. makes it easy for new parents. about a month after we last met natalia she's back home with her family the baby she carried inside her for nine months is now with her german parents they picked her up right after she was born. post there with the.

to be honest i did feel pretty confused after the birth. by him on the one hand you understand that it's not your child it is the bulls this foot on the other you want to know all about it but the the if you carry it in you for nine months of you. but i wouldn't call that the maternal instinct i. felt very clearly that it wasn't mine. just the rush for normal why your and how do you feel about it. newsnight i missed it somehow of course it's not our child but i've gotten used to it during the pregnancy. when the baby was born it was almost the way it was with our two children i would like to see it again just for you. the german parents want to stay in touch with the surrogate mother too at least they promised they would says natalia would she do it again she won't rule it out and the demand there

is growing and growing. those enjoying life in europe's large cities such as bratislava slovakia have to dig deep in their pockets to rent or buy an apartment all those who can't afford a metropolitan way of life move to rural areas where living costs are much lower many are settling down in the countryside of nearby austria a transition made simple thanks to the freedom of movement in the e.u. well we went to the small village of tutsi in austria to see what impact the influx from slovakia is having there. it's almost impossible to find an apartment here in brightest law. for whatever real estate agent be out to fuck a shelter has to offer she finds takers immediately this one for instance sixty square meters for seven hundred fifty euros if it was for sale it might cost some

three thousand euros per square meter virtually an affordable for the average wage of one thousand euros in slovakia's capital. when people buy an apartment here they go into debt for the rest of their lives for thirty years at least they take out mortgages with all the risks involved that's and i'm going to thank you kiran bratislava wages are a bit higher but even so to rent or buy an apartment here in the center at least two wage earners have to go in on it together. and some people who rent even live three to a flat if the landlord allows it might. as broad a slava grows and blooms many slovaks are moving to neighboring austria. just a ten minute drive takes them out of the big city and across the border into the broad flat austrian countryside. here in two thousand and thirteen the slow but

a family made their dream of a house and garden come true. sonja works as a teacher in bratislava while her husband martin has a business in the tourism sector. now they and their children are austrian residents the cost of living was another important factor. it's because you are comparing the capital a fairly big city with the countryside it's like the edge of the world and austria here in those that i. think most of the people in kids they have no problem with the slovaks but some are uneasy with the rapid growth of the village. one resident says strangers only used to come here during the africa harvest festival. is greatly think it may have any of the rural character is disappearing more and more. integration is of course not all that easy if you've got one thousand nine hundred kids

a residence trying to integrate fifteen hundred slovaks. it's slow going but it's working here to. skate always gets your lungs full of all it's working even better for the soccer club the slower a son heinrich is on the team the slovaks are also active in village life. so kids say is becoming a multicultural community. even though i think sports are a good way to integrate to get the kids playing with each other. and i don't think the younger generation the generation of our children will even be debating this issue in the years to come. help. to debate the bidding and. well other austrian villages no longer have enough kids for one soccer team kids say has an offer to coach roland has no problem finding new recruits he can't say exactly how many are slovaks. but really there's a reason for it's an enormous advantage because so many more kids are here and that

means a lot more talented kids in the four years i've been coaching the team the football club has grown immensely he could box and that's a huge advantage not just for the team but for the community far enough to do what your security set forth that you want in kids say austria europe is growing together on the playing field says sonya slow but the border that was once the iron curtain between austria and slovakia is fading into oblivion. while is tr near a peon countries like slovakia have already joined the e.u. other nations such as albania are eager for membership but a major hurdle is standing in their way the country has become one of europe's leading hubs for the production and trade of illegal drugs albanian authorities say they are cracking down on the mafia and are keen to promote their success to the

international press while our reporter traveled to the mediterranean coast of albania to see just how big an impact their efforts are really having. we were accompanying albanian border police on patrol in the mediterranean they want to show us they're getting tough on the mafia which controls the drug trade here. because the italian police are better equipped they're helping the albanians fight the drug smugglers. the officers fly down this fishing boat. they searched the cabin but find nothing suspicious. or are not that we've had smugglers who had heroin in car tires or oil tanks and up to get the last time we discovered ten kilos of heroin and i don't mean to brag but in the last two years the police and its partners have become more effective and

reduced the drug trade to a minimum. probably the clerical error but the numbers tell another story in twenty seventeen euro called the e.u. agency for law enforcement cooperation listed albania as europe's biggest producer of cannabis and a major drug trafficking harb. albania is one of the poorest countries in europe. here the average monthly income is around three hundred thirty euros. get the capital tirana is full of luxury cars. and the construction industry is booming. where is all the money coming from. journalists are town hard just a companies us two villages north have to run a better known for their contract killers he's the only investigative journalist in albania who reports on the mafia's involvement in drug trafficking it's

a wonder he's still alive. here furniture stores suddenly spring up on isolated country roads. were among those you know it will be here you were many of these shops are used to store and process drugs the record production of cannabis in two thousand and sixteen means that for no crime gangs no need to cultivate anymore they have enough in store for. such a registers our presence with the local mafia boss just to be on the safe side. to make sure that nothing happens to him the journalist reports on all forty one clans equally in his t.v. documentaries they're always at war with each other here as whether deadline. just says the whole country is really run by the mafia. or guess what some are in the wages of albanian police officers are far too low compared to the bribes they

receive from the crime gangs. under the current conditions you can't wage a serious war against organized crime. from time to time nor catch a few small fry but the guys pulling the strings will get off scot free. but albanian authorities claim the opposite they take us for a ride in a helicopter to show was that the marijuana fields are all gone. and they introduce us to the special task force which fights organized crime but we can't show the investigators faces on screen. we had more than a hundred people arrested a lot of these operations you know conducted by the spouse of the us force now do not say that they were just lower and soldiers the very not there or did or some of these groups but when we asked about investigations into corrupt politicians and

their links to the mafia his replies were evasive. at a secret location in switzerland we met up with drew tens of ghani he was a drug investigator in albania until twenty seventeen when he discovered that the country's then interior minister signed meir to he really had mafia connections. his cousins even used the minister's official car to smuggle drugs. but when's that ghani passed on this information he's the one who got arrested. just to prove it was the toughest time in my life i will move to the accusations that i was a traitor made my life a living help in the balkans who will move then the threats began against my family i had to leave albania to protect my children their lives were endangered by the mafia. a mafia which still has the full support of the government mafia.

using a drone are ten hundred just shows us where marijuana is still grown. here at the edge of the forest it's hard to spot. albania is making efforts to fight the drug trade. but until the link between politicians and the mafia is broken it's a battle the country is unlikely to win. for animal lovers pets are a source of unconditional love and companionship life just wouldn't be the same without their four legged friends but for some people the cost of tearing for their pets has become too high it's a problem that a group in antwerp belgium has found an answer to. in seville reich district of flemish couple has founded a pet food bank in a garage called. it hands out food for animals to people who often go hungry

themselves. they make it in that all school of the avenue folks who come here had their pets before they had financial woes the electricity prices just went up again and there be some who can't pay their bills. if he does and but when you have money troubles some you can't just give a pet that's been with you for years to a shelter is that of if you. are clients are people like to leave master magda who has to get by on a small pension others live on social assistance then there's kate like who has a big heart but little money. we have seven cats and a dog all of them were neglected you know we saved them and for now gave them a home that's the stuff you say look this is sociable place and have saw for the way they care for the animals. it's very good.

magda comes here every sunday morning. pet food is handed out from nine to eleven am demand is so great there's scarcely room to move one hundred twenty seven pet owners currently benefit from the nonprofit initiative which is financed entirely by donations. first we had to do a lot of looking around us we wrote to companies vets and stores the first day we gave away four kilos of food now it's three hundred kilos per month. and. many here are looking for social contacts as well as pet food so the project benefits animals and humans it's. no wonder the pet food banks founders are lovingly known as and corey and uncle frank. well that brings in this edition of focus on europe too and thanks so much for joining me don't forget you can also watch our program online at. our feet or sing

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to. say i want to represent you so what do you want from the joint on the phone from twenty four i'm doing chevelle as we put your questions the same politicians from around to your opinion and across the political spectrum in our special debate will be hearing from young europeans voting for the first time in the new elections in may voicing their biggest concerns faced as i said i mean the answer to you on the edge of balance and conference twenty four what's the connection between bread

biome and the european union dinos guild contests e.w. correspondents and alan baker can stretch this particular line to the moon sponsored by the team. called speak no. smoking recipes for success the strategy that make a difference. baking bread on d.w. . staying up to date don't miss our highlights. program online w. dot com highlights. much in being born does it. you're a liar to comprehend that since you want to look at the new school. you want to be useful but i'm allowed to do. when you're sick the doctors. when you

fall in love they won't mind you don't have children for fear they'll be invisible to you assure. you have no human. when you die there's no proof of ever exist. every ten minutes. someone says. ten million people in the world the stake they have no nationality and told they don't belong and. that everyone has the right. everyone has the right to say or.

this is the news live from berlin international tensions searchers are beyond that nuclear deal just reject tektronix old mates and saying that rightly concerned about the deals future amusement republican contemplates cost new sanctions against the united states increases the pressure also on the program to pope francis' moves against sex abuse in the catholic church and future priests and nuns around the book will be obliged to inform church if they suspect abuse is taking place. time to.