♪ welcome to this week's "focus on europe," where we take you behind the headlines. i'm michelle henery and id like to give you an insight into the lives of the people who live and work across this fascinating continent. thank you for joining us. on the program today, how scotland's oil boom went bust. refugees in serbia come together across the generations. and how france's wall for peace is causing conflict. did you ever imagine that a trip to the gas station could be a highlight of your day? with the price of oil tumbling, filling up your car is now cheap and has even led to more people

across europe taking road trips for their vacations. oil prices have fallen from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30 now. but in the communities that rely heavily on the oil industry for jobs, this fall has been devastating. britain's oil capital aberdeen once boasted more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country. now the scottish city is in crisis, with thousands of people out of work, loing their homes and relying on food banks. the collapse has also exposed the vulnerability of the scottish economy, some say weakening their case for independence from britain. reporter: ryan morison spends a lot of time home alone. his daughter is at pre-school, his wife has gone back to work. the family barely makes ends meet. the bank has only deferred their loans until the end of the month. as a drilling engineer, ryan did well out of the oil boom in the north sea. but before he and his family had

even moved into their new house, he lost his job. ryan morison: in june 2015 i was told there was no future work for me at the company and we originally agreed that i would move on. i've got experience so i thought i'd put my cv out to various contractors and agencies. reporter: but that was almost a year ago, and his chances of finding a job here in aberdeen are looking increasingly slim. every day, he trawls the internet for jobs. he's been offered work in qatar but the project has been postponed for at least a year because of the low oil price. and anyway, what about his new house? many in the neighbourhood are in a similar position. ryan morison: the house just to

our left is exacty the same house. since the price of oil dropped, so have the house prices. the house there is now 50,000 pounds cheaper than it was 8 months ago when we purchased the house. reporter: oil and gas have been the dominant industries in aberdeen for years. global prices are now down to around $35 a barrel, barely more than production costs here in the north sea. companies are making cuts and delaying investments. there have been 70,000 lay-offs in britain's oil indurstry in the last few years. highly qualified, highly specialised workers facing an uncertain future. >> aberdeen is one of te world centres when it comes to oil and gas. it's hugely important. not just in terms of activities in the north sea but what is pthe world.ted from here across so it is a real big impact here in the north sea. the north sea is one of the

highest cost basins to operate in and of course when the revenue falls away, we can't just to get our price down to make sure the fields are competitive in a environment. reporter: many people are giving up on the industry. mechelle has lost her job twice. now she's setting up her own business. she's renovated an old shop. in a few days she'll be opening her takeaway & cafe. mechelle clark: here we are. it's taken a lot of work to get here. we're nearly there. i'm very glad to be out of the oil and gas insutry. -- industry. it certianly doens't seem to be improving, so i feel like i've made the right decision so far. reporter: this customer is looking for a free meal. this is one of aberdeen's many food distribution centres.

two years ago, they dispensed a total of 10,000 food parcels a year. that figure has gone up to 30,000. >> over the last 6-9 months we've noticed an increase in what you might describe as casualties of the oil industry. reporter: its the lovely light that earnt aberdeen the nickname the silver city. but for the time being, its days in the sun are over. boarded-up shopfronts are scattered along union street, aberdeen's main shopping street. and "for sale" signs are sprouting up all over the city's attractive residential neighbourhoods. it's no longer just people in the oil and gas industry who are feeling the pinch. its oil and gas reserves were a significant factor in scotland's push for independence. the no side won in a referendum in 2014. but should britain vote for a brexit in june, another scottish

independence referendum will be on the cards. >> if there was a brexit caused by an english majority, voting scotland out, should scotland have voted to remain the eu, i think there would definitely be a second scottish referendum and i doubt very much if the oil price would play a huge role in that. reporter: ryan has decided to take a job in sales, and to get a masters degree, hoping it might improve his employment prospects. now and then he visits the port and looks out to sea. ryan morison: it makes me feel sad. this is a booming town, the oil capital of europe. when the oil price is high, this place is buzzing. lots and lots of activity around the city. it's sad to see no vessels in the harbour, not a lot of activity.

reporter: as the sun sets on north east scotland, there's a palpable sense that the gold rush is over. michelle: reports about the movement of refugees tend to focus on the tensions caused by their arrival. but for a group of refugees stranded in a camp near belgrade, it is a different story. while serbia has been sheltering just a few arrivals from africa, asia and the middle east, the country still hosts thousands of people displaced by the conflict in former yugoslavia which took place more than two decades ago. here in the camp krunjatscha we meet with long-time residents like the serbian couple dusanka and milan, befriending new arrivals like fahim from somalia. exhausted by the little help the camp offers, they count on one another like family. despite their very different backgrounds, they are united in hope of finding a proper place to call home.

reporter: people here call it "camp despair." the krnjaca refugee camp was set up more than twenty years ago for people displaced by the conflicts in the balkans. nowadays refugees are arriving from pakistan, northern africa or like fahim mode, somalia. he says he arrived months ago and is now stuck here. only iraqis and syrians are allowed to travel on to the european union to apply for asylum. but fahim does not want to return home. >> when i was born, somalia was already at war. i only know the beauty of africa from films on television. people are starving where i come from. i was hit by shrapnel. i still have the scars on my stomach. reporter: this serbian couple

fled their home in the krajina region of croatia, three hundred kilometers away, more than two decades ago. relations with croats in their home village were peaceful. but then the war began. croatian soldiers destroyed their home and they had to flee. >> when we got here, all we had was a horse blanket. nobody helped us start a new life. we got no money or any other kind of assistance. reporter: they have been here ever since, living in cramped conditions. >> we have everything in this one room, here is the kitchen, here the living room, and here the bedroom. even prisons have better beds. and we store things under the bed.

reporter: more than a hundred refugees from the balkans war in the 1990's are still living here. in recent months they have got to know new neighbours from remote lands. fahim mode, milan and dusanka have become friends. >> at least i start to learn this family. why they stay here. what are they doing here. then i start to greet them for one day. they call me to drink coffee. they start to love me and i start to love them. same like my family. reporter: he told me about his family, and how his mother died. i felt so sorry for him. what a situation to be in.

the least we can do is be there for him and to listen to him. so they try to cheer each other up under depressing circumstances. >> they have all been here, government officials, journalists, ambassadors, human-rights organisations. during their visits, they promise us the moon. but once they've gone, all that is soon forgotten and nothing ever changes. reporter: we ask the camp's director how he sees the situation. >> it's quite simple. we never had any money. for years and years, we had no budget. but now we are feeling more optimistic about the camp.

the european union has promised to help. we hope to have a solution to the problems here in place by the spring. but in the meantime more and more refugees are arriving. these men are from pakistan. they don't have any money, so they can't pay people smugglers to sneak them into an eu country. they ask fahim how they can move on from here and get to the west. his answer is sobering. the croats will deport you. the austrians will deport you. you don't stand a chance. i am staying here for now. a few days ago fahim went into belgrade to apply for asylum here in serbia. it was not an easy decision for him to make. serbia is still suffering from the aftermath of the civil war. the economy is weak. few applicants are granted asylum.

>> i am frightened i could get stuck in the camp for ever like my two friends. i want to study, i want to learn languages. i want to have my own home and have a family. maybe i will try again later to get into the european union. reporter: for now, all fahin, dusanka and milan can do is wait and hope that one day they can escape the camp of despair. michelle: fahim, and with him thousands of stranded refugees, hope to make it to their final destination eventually which in most cases is germany. but many struggle because they lack the necessary papers. often migrants fled their homes without marriage licenses, birth certificates or passports. but many people also feel trapped at border camps because they are not syrian and fleeing civil war so they don't immediately qualify for protected status. as a result, some migrants destroy their id during their journey and try to pass as syrian refugees.

and to help them along, a passport black market in greece has emerged. these forgers, many of them migrants themselves are demanding up to 3000 euros per passport and business is booming. our reporter went to athens and met some of the counterfeiters to see how this complex and murky world thrives. reporter: we're in victoria square, a neighbourhood that's become a notorious hub of organised crime. following a tip-off from within the judiciary, we're here to track down a fake passport ring allegedly run by pakistanis who are said to control most of this illegal business. we meet two members of the ring, who seem unperturbed by our cameras. they tell us we can follow them as they pick up a fake passport for an iranian refugee. job done, they head off looking relaxed as though their work were perfectly above-board.

they openly ply their trade using viber and whatsapp. we follow them to one of their makeshift headquarters, a 2-room apartment. business is flourishing, they tell us. selling up to 250 passports per week makes them a few hundred thousand euros. when i ask about the passport for the iranian refugee, they tell me he's planning on heading to germany. >> this is what kind of passport? >> syrian, arab republic. >> super quality? number one. how expensive is number one? >> sometimes plus 3,000 euros. reporter: french, albanian, portugese, greek, canadian and u.s. passports. some of them

already have a magnetic strip. it's even possible to come by electronic id chips made in china and exported to athens. but does a fake id really pass muster? >> yes, in the border area people go by foot and there are no machines or scans to check like at airports. reporter: we want to know what the greek authorities are doing against the illegal trade. we accompany undercover police who are arresting a group of iranians. only one of them has a passport we are told, that's presumably fake. the police think the men were waiting for forged documents. the next day they show us reams of faked papers they seized in a swoop on an international fake passports ring last october. >> what does it mean? are all these passports coming to germany in the end? >> in every country in the eu,

not just germany. reporter: the refugees and migrants here on omonia square in downtown athens are from bangladesh, pakistan, iran and countries in northern africa. we ask the young men what they are waiting for. they say a passport. it will be hard for them to achieve their goal of being recognised as refugees or granted asylum in an eu country. so they take measures to increase their chances. only one of these men shows us his real passport. the others say they tore theirs up on the way to greece and threw then into the sea. agents of the counterfeiters contact with refugees here, organise photos, gather the relevant data, and payment. among shops selling mobile-phone

and gold we meet a greek counterfeiter. his speciality is greek passports. >> some are stolen from regular people. other passports i buy. for, say, a thousand euros. their original owners then report them stolen. if you want top quality, a complete package including passport, plane tickets and middle-men will cost up to five thousand euros per person. reporter: he says he does most of his business on victoria square, as is the case for the pakistani passport-fakers. many of the refugees arriving in coaches this evening are from syria. and they too will be wanting to acquire new identities. for example, so that the children of relatives can pass as their own, and others want to disguise their past. >> when migrants arrive, they

know exactly what they will find here. they know the ropes and have the right money with them. reporter: the passport merchants are out and about, to provide refugees with new identities, if the price is right. ♪ michelle: in the third report from our series, european worlds of walls and the stories behind them, we go to paris. known as the city of lights and love and for some, a city of peace. not far from the eiffel tower stands the city's wall for peace. made out of glass and metal, the structure is inscribed with the word "peace" in 49 languages. the wall took on greater significance in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the french capital last november.

but some parisians are trying to tear it down. driven by the support of residents, the local mayor has launched a campaign to dismantle the wall, calling it an eyesore that ruins the view of the eifel tower. the wall for peace was inspired by the wailing wall of jerusalem. it has become a symbol of jewish culture in paris, causing some to question if the calls for its removal are an attack on the country's jews. reporter: in the shadow of the eiffel tower stands one of paris' lesser-known monuments, the wall for peace. shalom, salaam, frieden, the word 'peace' is written here in 49 languages and 18 different alphabets. created by jewish couple clara and marek halter, the wall for peace was inspired by jerusalem's western wall, also known as wailing wall. erected in 2000, it's now in disrepair. its opponents want to get rid of

it. their spokeswoman is the mayor of paris' 7th district. under former president nicolas sarkozy she was justice minister . >> i just want people to abide by the law. that goes for the halters, too, regardless of how much influence they have or what people they know. a building permit was never issued for this wall and i won't rest until it's gone. i owe that to parisians and the residents of my district. reporter: rashida dati hopes to get a court order to have the wall torn down, which was conceived as an artwork to be shown for 3 months. france's then-president jacques chirac attended the inauguration. at the time he sought his more as a symbol of peace. it was a visible symbol of the vitality of france's jewish community.

marek halter and his wife clara are collecting money to renovate the artwork. but some clearly don't want the monument here. and it's not just the grafitti. >> some residents have written on the internet, we don't want a wailing wall outside our window. in other words, you jews, go somewhere elsewhere. they've paid a fortune to live here. it's the most expensive quarter in paris. and then they build a wailing wall there. just imagine. reporter: tens of thousands of jews have left france in recent years, many moving to israel or the united states. jewish life in paris is increasingly restricted to a few streets in the city's famous jewish quarter, the marais. clara halter also lives here, though she can no longer leave her apartment.

the wall for peace was her crowning achievement. the designs have pride of place in her home. >> this monument is a symbol for peace. the calligraphy is very beautiful and it's touching. i can't understand why people can't see that. reporter: we go back to the wall for peace and ask, where's the outcry? is this monument important to anyone? >> it stands for france, for peace. even if we have different religions, we're all brothers. reporter: local residents have taken the matter into their own hands. one of them, bernard ronsin, says the wall for peace has a place, but not here.

bernard ronsin: the wall for peace destroys this world-famous perspective which goes from the hill of chaillot to the ecole militaire. if people are throwing stones at this structure, then maybe it is because it's in the wrong spot. it could be just vandalism, but perhaps an act of protest, too. reporter: we ask him whether the wall shouldn't remain precisely because it's a symbol of jewish life in paris. bernard ronsin: in the marais district there's a holocaust memorial, a wonderful building with an auditorium and a library. they've created an admirable museum there. reporter: some believe that's as that -- paris is a need any more jewish symbols and that. locals have collected thousands of signatures to have the monument moved to the city's outskirts. things don't look good for the wall for peace. it's falling apart and looks as

if its days are numbered. it's now off-limits to visitors. these days even peace is dangerous. michelle: should the wall stay where it is? would its meaning diminish if it moved? how important is it as a symbol of peace? let us know what you think about that or any of today's stories by getting in touch on facebook, email or twitter. and next week in our series we tell you the story about on of the oldest walls in europe, built more than 1500 years ago. it was meant to protect constantinopel, modern day istanbul. that's it for today. thank you for watching. in the meantime, it's goodbye from me and from the whole "focus on europe" team. see you next time. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪