>> this is dw news live from berlin. hiding the money. some of the world's most powerful people have been named in the leaked panama papers. millions of documents detailing offshore accounts that conceal wealth. tax authorities around the world are already investigating. also on the show, sending them back. europe begins deporting migrants back to turkey. it's part of a controversial agreement aimed at ending the migrant crisis. human rights groups say the deal puts refugees in danger. and as the world marks international day for mine

awareness, we'll go beyond the statistics to see the danger of these lethal weapons. >> i'm brent. it's good to have you with us. the tax man has his work cut out for him. tonight, tax authorities around the globe are launching investigations after millions of leaked documents revealed how tens of thousands of wealthy and powerful people are hiding their money in offshore companies. 12 current and former heads of government have been implicated. the information was leaked to an international coalition of media outlets. >> ice lan dick prime minister sigmundur davio gunnlaugsson is not normally in the world's media spotlights. but following the document leak linking him and his wife to an offshore company in the british virgin islands, he may become

the highest casualty of the so-called panama papers. he promised full transparency when he became premiere. he was confronted with the revelations on sunday. he became visibly upset and stormed out of the room. he since denied any wrongdoing. the opposition is planning a vote of no confidence. in total, 11.5 million documents spanning four decades have been leaked from the database of the secretive panama-based firm, mossack fonseca. it's the world's largest ever data leak. among the other 11 former or current world leaders implicated in the leagues, are the ukrainian president, poroshenko. one lawmaker is now calling for him to face impeachment proceedings over his alleged use of offshore accounts.

meanwhile, close friends and defendants of russian president vladimir putin are alleged to have moved $2 billion to offshore companies. media reports have speculated that it leads a trail back to putin himself. but the kremlin leads russia and the russian president are targets of a western media smear campaign. it has also hit the world of football. lionel messi and his father have been named in the documents. in a family statement, he denied the allegations, saying they were false and offensive. the panamanian law firm has also issued its own rejection of the allegations. it denies being responsible for how its clients manage the companies it sets up for them. privacy is being lost in the world. privacy is a sacred human right

that new generations don't understand the importance of. when i was young, one was innocent until proven guilty. now, one is guilty until proven innocent. the holding -- holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, but generalists who received the documents say they provide evidence of money laundering. among the nations to launch probes into the allegations are australia, new zealand and underya. the u.s. -- india. the u.s. justice department says it's also reviewing the documents. >> let's pull in our correspondent here in berlin. he's on the story for us tonight. good evening to you, thomas. we've got all these countries implicated. now it appears germany as well. i think i was reading maybe a thousand names there. what is going on? do we know exactly who is involved? reporter: that's correct, according to the investigation. more than 1,000 germans are somehow linked to the panama papers leaked.

many are business people, bankers. there's also formula one driver or secret agent van. but according to the investigation, most of the germans involved are very rarely in the spotlight. 28 banks from germany were also mentioned, including deutsche bank. and they are said to have either created or managed around 1,200 offshore companies. many of those companies are, according to the investigation, still active today. >> and do we know exactly, what are the banks doing? and maybe more importantly, what is the german government doing about this? >> well, two of the banks denied any wrongdoing. in fact, deutsche bank said it verified with whom it works, and it also tries to comply with all rules and regulations. the german government also reacted today, saying that it hoped that this scandal would

improve efforts worldwide against tax fraud and money laundering. germany has been at the forefront of these issues. and the finance minister will discuss these issues in the upcoming i.m.f. and world bank meeting in washington. >> our political correspondent here on the story for us tonight. thomas, thank you very much. and here with me in the studio is max. he is the program coordinator for financial integrity, with transparency international. it's good to have you on the show with us tonight. we just heard from our correspondent thomas that germany is now also involved, implicated in the panama papers. what happened to the fight against tax evaders? >> well, this story showings how much still needs to be done. so as we've seen, there's 40 years of data in this data trove. it's just an illustration of the millions of people who have these offshore accounts, which are still anonymous, still not being held accountable and that can be used for crime,

corruption and also tax evasion, as was mentioned. >> you say that, you know, ownership secrecy maybe is at the crux of the problem here. explain to us what that is. i mean, what do you think needs to be done? >> well, the thing is, in many countries around the world, it's still possible to own a company, to be the single owner of a company anonymously, so people see the name of the company and it can be buying property, holding bank accounts. but if authorities, for example, want to find the owner, it's very difficult. that's the problem. that's why they keep being used for crime. so what we need is the names of the owners to be public. >> well, how does that happen? let's say i own a company, let's say, in argentina. the company itself, the name has to be public. but the owner can be kept secret? >> yes. absolutely. and that happens in almost every country in the world right now. so this is a massive systemic change that has to happen. luckily, things are moving.

g20 leaders committed to do this. they haven't yet implemented it correctly but at least it's a start, right? >> it is a start. but i think a lot of people, when they go through the list of names, for example, they're not going to be shocked. they're going to say, well, this just confirms what we thought. what does that tell us then about good governance, about transparency, about all the things you're working for? you must be a very frustrated man today. >> well, actually, no. today is a very interesting day for us, because we've been talking about this for three or four years. and today we've gotten more attention than we have in a very long time. so we think this could be potentially a tipping point for this issue, which means a lot more attention still. and above all, it needs solutions from governments to go public about who owns companies. >> all right. max, with transparency international. we will be talking with you later on in the day. thank you very much. well, making the difficult journey to europe is not worth

the risk. that is the clear message that officials want to convey with the refugee deal that was agreed between the e.u. and turkey. it went into force this morning. the first migrants were transferred today from the greek i feel of les bows to the turkish coastal town. they will be transferred, because the u.n. says turkey cannot provide the migrants with a safe place to stay. nearly 52,000 people remain stranded in greece tonight. reporter: these migrants are still in europe, on the greek island. many of them have only applied for asylum in the last couple of days. they know those who don't have official papers will soon be sent back to turkey. early on monday morning, turkey received the first group of migrants to be returned from the e.u. with official papers or not, they might have left the e.u. for good.

back in brussels, the chief spokesperson of the commission says he sees no evidence of the troubles many had predicted with the deportation plan. >> we didn't see, this morning, unrest or riots or uncivilized events. i think the operation was very organized, properly, with the sufficient front presence. reporter: amnesty international is concerned about what will happen when the migrant's plight moved out of the media spolg. >> all of this is based on the sums that turkey is a -- assumption that turkey is a safe place for refugees. we have documented that it is not. we have documented returns of syrians, for example. all of that means this deal cannot be implemented right now safely and legally in the way that the e.u. is so doggedly determined to do.

reporter: meanwhile, the return program continues. more and more migrants will be sent back to turkey and rifing in ports -- rifin arriving in ps such as this. >> our very own julian is in dikili, the turkish town where refugees arrived today who were deported from greece. what's your take on what happened to do? how did the process go? do you feel like turkey is prepared to help these people? reporter: well, overall, here on the turkish side as well, everything happened more quickly and more swiftly than many of us had expected. we saw three boats arriving here at dikili harbor, carrying about 200 migrants, most of them pakistanis and bangladeshis. there were also at least two syrians who had apparently agreed to be returned

voluntarily. we then saw how police escorted them into tents. there they were registered. their fingerprints were taken. but that's something we couldn't actually see. we didn't have the chance to talk to those people, to those migrants, because the port was partly sealed off. the only thing we then saw was how buses carrying those migrants left the harbor and left the town. >> i mean, there's an important point to make about this story. reporters are having no contact with the migrants that are being deported. we want to make sure that people know that. what about the turkish locals where you are? how have they been reacting? reporter: there have been minor protests, nothing major. people have signed a petition against refugees. and i asked a lady, for example, in a restaurant what her problem was with those migrants. she said she's scared that there will be so many migrants here in

dikili, at the beach, for example, and you have to know dikili is a popular tourist destination, especially for turkish tourists. those people are scared this will hurt the industry and dikili will not be popular anymore. but those fears are basically unfounded, since we saw today most of those refugees are not going to stay in dikili. they are immediately taken somewhere else. >> all right. our correspondent, julia, in dikili, the area of turkey where those deported migrants arrived earlier today. julia, thank you very much. azerbaijan says three of its soldiers have been killed in renewed clashes over the breakaway region of nagorno-karabakh. fighting broke out over the weekend with armenia-backed separatists. at least 30 troops were killed on both sides. the russian foreign minister

called for calm, saying that armenia and azerbaijan should use their influenza to stop the conflict. nagorno-karabakh has been under the control of local, ethnic armearmenian forces since the ef full-scale war in 1994. here are some of the other stories making headlines around the world. thousands of residents have fled from congo's capital, brazville, after fighting erupted. streams of people left districts loyal to the opposition, which is contesting last month'sful election. a government spokesperson said that former members of the so-called ninja militia attacked military police and administrative offices. the nigerian army says it has arrested the leader of al-nusra, a splinter group of boko haram boko haram. he was reportedly apprehended in

the city of loki. the militant group is notorious for its high-profile killings and attacks of western interests. we're going to take a break.

>> welcome back, everyone. you're with developin dw news, m berlin. the secretive law firm of mossack fonseca, in panama. tax authorities across the globe are launching investigations after leaked documents from the firm revealed how tens of thousands of wealthy people hide their money in offshore companies. 12 current and former heads of government have been implicated. greece has begun deporting migrants to turkey as part of the controversial deal to stem the flow of people coming to europe. under the agreement, many migrants arriving by boat on the greek islands will be sent back.

human rights groups say that the move will put refugees in danger. one million people have been killed or maimed by land mines around the world. now, today is the international day for mine awareness. it's a way that the u.n. calls attention to this hidden but devastating danger. more than 80% of land mine casualties are civilians, at least one third of those victims are children. here are some more disturbing numbers. this image you're going to see gives you a sense of the extent of the global problem. more than 50 countries reported casualties in 2000 -- 2014 and more than -- more than 160 nations have already banned land mines. the ones you see behind me here in blue. but not all have de-mined their territory. the united states noticeably absent from the list of signatories to the treaty.

a new detection method being developed by german scientists could help nations clear mines more quickly. [sirens] >> remember this figure? every day, about 10 people are killed or injured around the world, after accidentally stepping on these remnants of war, land mines. by some estimates, there are still # 100 million of them buried in the ground, ready to explode at any moment. removing them is often a painstaking and dangerous endeavor. that's why scientists at the german aerospace center set out to create a system which they believe can detect a wide range of land mines more quickly and more safely. >> we scan a large area, roughly 100 meters, in a few minutes.

so we get images, because we use an antenna ray. there we can then have detections within the image where suspicious objects appear. and if you apply that, in that case, then you can go with other sensors directed to the detections and confirm if this is a mine or some explosive or similar dangerous things. reporter: the system can be fitted on to a truck and is equipped with multiple antennas that operate in ultra-high frequency change. they are detect what is located on the ground and also under the surface. land mines like this one here, or these three smaller ones, continue to be a threat in many countries. scientists here at the aerospace institute have now concluded the first phase of their project. the next phase is to try and develop a protest type that they -- prototype that they could send, where land mines like these are still a hidden

danger. for now, they are in contact with industries and the german milita hope -- military, in the hope that this project can eventually help save countless lives every year. >> all right. let's switch gears. javier is here with business news. it's the end of a legal battle over one of the world's most disastrous oil spills. >> that's right. a settlement at last, after years of bitter litigation. b.p.'s horizon platform disaster was devastating for the gulf of mexico, from texas to florida. now, six years later, a judge has approved a final order to force b.p. to pay $20 billion in compensation and fines. that tops a previous settlement to individuals. an explosion on the deep water rig in april 2010 killed 11 workers on the platform and led to 130 million gallons of oil spilled. the money in the final settlement will be handed out

over 16 years and includes payments to fix environmental damage. >> now to the big topic of the day. the panama papers. we're just at the very beginning of the revelations on the leaked documents. but we already know, almost every major bank in the world has been helping some of their lients to send their moneyheir offshore, beyond reach of the tax man. while this is not always illegal, the documents have confirmed that trillions of dollars have been filtered through banks to tax havens. money that was desperately needed in many of the countries it came from. reporter: the papers show credit swiss, bc and hsbc are among the banks that requested the creation of the most offshore companies for their clients. it's costing the governments trillions. >> in some countries, public services are much below the level we'd like to have, as are taxes much too high. both could be manned to some degree.

if some companies pay taxes and others don't pay taxes, there is no fair competition. and this brings down the economy, because the big ones who use these instruments, they get rich. the other ones cannot succeed. reporter: over 500 banks were involved in registering more than 15,000 companies. the majority of them based here, the british virgin islands, a place known for its opaque tax laws. it's not just isolated incidents involving equally isolated islands. in february, two bankers were found guilty of helping their clients avoid tax and were hit by hefty half a billion fine. ubs, hsbc and many more besides have been recently raided on similar charges. banks do have legitimate reasons to send their customers' moneyoff shore, to pro-- offshore, to protect their income from economic unrest or currency flex situations --

fluctuation. it can also support corruption and crime. >> let's see how all this went down in the united states and bring in our wall street correspondent. so what are the reperssions like on wall street? >> well, overall, it's not that the u.s. authorities are taking tax evasion or money laundering lightly. still, the outcry on wall street, both by far and not as loud as we heard it in europe, that might be because so far, no big american bank has been named prominently. also no american apologies. therefore -- politicians. therefore, the outcry is not that loud yet. but that could change. we're still in the early phases. there are thousands, millions of documents to go through. >> let's switch topics briefly. the tesla motors 3 model is in production. they tell us more. this could be the beginning of a new era.

>> ha! yes. tesla is certainly still on the run. orders for the new model got accepted since thursday. and by late saturday, tesla got orders for almost 300,000 vehicles, just to put that in perspective, the b.m.w. 3 series sold about 95,000 cars all over 2015. and tesla itself so far has delivered about 110,000 cars. so now all of a sudden, just the orders within the first couple of days, they almost reached 300,000. and the stock of tesla is on fire. the stock gained about 5% on monday. in february, the stock traded at 140. now we are at about 250 per share. >> some promising future there. but only time will tell. thank you very much for the insight. there is a worldwide sugar

shortage right now. prices are soaring. a severe drought is hitting top sugar cane exporters in thailand. thai companies forecast a drop of shipments of up to a third. the situation could get even worse next year. reporter: it's the worst drought in 20 years in thailand. this plantation's crops have been badly blighted. not only is the yield down sharply, but the produce is less sweet. that means refiners need more shaking cane to -- sugar cane to produce the same amount of sugar and they pay farmers less per to the outlook for next year is poor as well. >> i think it will be worse next year, with this kind of weather of 40 degrees and no rain. the sugar cane cannot survive. 80% of the crop was damaged. for next year, i think it will be worse. reporter: the lack of rain has damaged the young cane plants as well. many of them will not deliver

much yield next year. >> the drought has resulted in the crops not growing, allowing the pests to eat all of its roots. there's no rain to help the roots grow, so the sugar cane cannot grow to its full potential height. reporter: this mid-sized sugar mill in the central thai province is running below capacity. it will operate for only 90 days instead of the usual 120. >> no, the sugar supply is not enough for export. we have a huge quota for export, but we do not have enough supply to meet the target. reporter: thailand typical exports about three quarters of its sugar outlet. they shipped just over seven million tons this year, down from almost nine million tons a year ago. although international prices are soaring at 17-year highs, farmers are suffering from the low yields. many are getting heavily into debt.

if the rains don't come, the future looks increasingly dismal. >> some hard times there. so much for the business news. all right. thank you very much. we're going to take a short break. when we come back, i'll take you through the day. we're going to have in-depth coverage of the panama papers. stick around for that. we'll be right back.

♪ quick hello. will come to focus on europe. today, we start with the attacks in brussels. once again, islamic terrorists have struck in europe. once again, they targeted innocent bystanders. on tuesday morning, two explosions ripped through the airport. dozens were killed and injured. people fled in panic. a short time later, another last hit the brussels metro. the islamic state has claimed responsibility. belgian authorities