♪ michelle: hello, and welcome to i'm michelle henery. the south of spain is often referred to as europe's vegetable garden. it supplies the continent with everything from cucumbers to tomatoes. but that low-price produce has a high human cost. african migrants work and live on these sites in dire conditions. "we'll have to work well, so we have a right to a better apartment," says this man. but first to turkey, where europe and the wider world wait to see the outcome of the presidential referendum there. our reporter gunnar koehne wanted to do a report on kurdish views of this month's vote, which could increase president erdogan's powers considerably. however, in the 20 years he has

lived and worked there, gunnar has never struggled more to find people to interview. he says long-standing tensions between the current regime and the large kurdish minority are worse than they've ever been. many were simply too afraid to talk to him. gunnar: the ruling ak party has never won an election here in diyarbakir. but as the country gears up for a constitutional referendum that would give the president more power, posters showing the image of recep tayyip erdogan seem omnipresent in the mainly kurdish city. the message is that the kurds should likewise say yes to the changes. for journalist fuat yasar, that's a sign the vote will be unfair -- especially in kurdish regions. mr. yasar: as soon as a few people come out on the street to campaign for a no vote, the police show up immediately.

the governor has banned all opposition events for so-called security reasons. gunnar: in diyarbakir, opponents of the constitutional reforms can only meet behind closed doors. yasar is among those planning to vote no. as a kurd, he's worried about losing more rights if president erdogan gets his way. the controversial draft resolution doesn't include protections for kurds and other minorities. for yasar, it's also a personal issue. his father, a local kurdish politician, has been in prison for half a year. yasar's seeking support from the kurdish opposition, who say there are too many kurds sitting in turkish jails. ms. guven: at the moment, thousands of our hdp party members are in prison, including mayors and lawmakers. the conditions there are so unbearable that many of them have gone on hunger strike.

mr. yasar: my father pushed for peace at every opportunity. he never called for violence, which is what he's been accused of. he said people should lay down their weapons, and also said publicly that only peace has a future. gunnar: meanwhile, fighting continues between pkk militants and turkish security forces in southeastern turkey. a year ago, a fierce battle in the historic sur district of diyarbakir left ancient buildings in ruins. the government has now had many of them demolished, and forced residents to flee. but some kurds believe erdogan is the only hope for restarting the peace process. while the local branch of the akp did not want to meet us, these pro-yes activists are happy to be filmed. they don't have a big audience today, but they think the constitutional reforms will also have positive effects for kurds. mr. ay: the new constitution

promises everyone countless new freedoms, irrespective of their ethnic origin, faith, or political views. but when a lawmaker or mayor supports a terrorist organization like the pkk, then they must be brought to account, regardless of whether they're kurdish or not. gunnar: yasar is worried the ongoing repression of a peaceful kurdish opposition will drive more people into the arms of the pkk. he works for a small kurdish television channel, which is now only permitted to broadcast online. he doesn't know how much longer that will last, but he hopes erdogan will be denied the chance to implement his plans. mr. yasar: since my father has been in prison, i know that i have to fight harder for justice. you can lock up my father, but

you can't stop our longing for freedom. gunnar: for now, a tense calm has descended on diyarbakir. but yasar is concerned violence will increase again if the yes vote wins and erdogan gets major new powers. for most kurds, the banners flying all over the city mean anything but freedom. michelle: kwasi owusu left his home in ghana, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family in europe. but after 15 years toiling away as a farm laborer in southeastern spain, he has little to show for it. he's one of many economic migrants from africa who work and live in inhumane and often dangerous conditions. our reporter visited the sea of plastic greenhouses that blanket the region to find out how such exploitation could happen. reporter: kwasi owusu is showing us around his make-shift hut. 15 years ago, he journeyed from

ghana to spain to find work. but his hopes of finding a better life have been well and truly dashed. mr. owusu: look at that. if it caught fire, we'd have a problem. we're expected to work hard, so we have a right to a decent place to live. it's not fair that we have to live like this. reporter: but no one will rent him an apartment -- despite the fact that he has a residence permit -- leaving kwasi to live in what's basically a slum. drinking water has to be fetched in a cart. residents have to wash in public. it's a similar story with many other african migrants here in almeria. they're agricultural workers, but barely earn enough to get by. mr. owusu: look at them. it's hotter inside them than it

is outside. the owner pays a pittance -- 33 or 34 euros a day. and you don't get a contract. reporter: migrants like kwasi provide cheap labor in the plastic greenhouses that are omnipresent in almeria. many of the migrants work illegally. without a job contract, they can't find anywhere to live. their employers are reluctant to talk. they don't want our cameras here. juan lopez does agree to be interviewed. he employs african day laborers, and assures us they all have job contracts, social security, and a wage of 40 euros a day. but he says he can understand why some smallholders pay less and don't bother with social security. the economic pressures are too great.

it's the distributors who are earning the real money. mr. romera: it takes one whole day to harvest 2000 kilos of peppers. i need eight people. i should really be getting more money for my produce. if i were, then i'd be able to pay them more. reporter: every day before dawn, the migrants gather on the street corners in the hope of being picked up by a smallholder for a day's work in the greenhouses. none of the migrants are willing to talk to us. we approach a spanish van driver. he just does what he's told, he says. >> i'm just a simple worker. i'm no better off than the migrants. reporter: many spaniards do indeed work under similarly precarious conditions, with

little or no social security, and for a meager wage. but according to trade unionist jose garcia, the difference is that migrants are not even aware of their rights. in his eyes, it's pure exploitation. he hands out flyers to the day laborers coming off their shifts. mr. cueva: you should be getting 46 euros a day, not 30. and your boss should be paying into social insurance schemes so that you can claim a pension later. you should also be wearing protective face masks when you work with chemicals. safety is vital. you could get sick. reporter: but few day laborers are prepared to raise these issues with their bosses, for fear of losing their job. mr. mendy: fear is always the enemy. reporter: according to the unionists, the government is turning a blind eye. mr. cueva: the politicians are just burying their heads in the sand.

they don't want trouble, they're not interested. you have to remember, most day laborers in almeria aren't going to vote. so, they don't have a lobby. reporter: we tried to talk to the authorities in almeria, but were refused an interview. day laborer kwasi owusu is bitter. he's lost faith in the spanish authorities. mr. owusu: i just want the authorities to help people find decent places to live and to help us get slightly higher wages. we don't know how to claim our rights. reporter: kwasi sends the money he earns in spain back to his wife and three children in ghana, who he misses dearly. but given the way he's forced to live, he'd rather not bring them over to europe. michelle: russia's annexation of

crimea unsettled other former members of the soviet union -- especially latvia, which has a considerably larger proportion of russian speakers than ukraine. while moscow continues to enjoy support among older, ethnic russians, in the capital riga, there are signs of the younger, post-cold war generation breaking with soviet-era trends and shifting in alliance from moscow to the european union. reporter: mara is a regular shopper at riga's central market. it's a meeting point for latvian and ethnic russian residents. at the fish-stand -- latvian eels, next to russia carp and caviar. mara's mother tongue is latvian -- the country's official language -- and she is proud of her homeland. she meets up with alexei in this fish restaurant. he's also a latvian citizen, but his mother tongue is russian.

mara is a well-known singer. alexei is a photographer. and the two seem to understand each other very well, in various ways. mara: i speak latvian. but maybe that's because when i started, i was, like, six. i started in latvian, and alexei was polite enough to continue his latvian. alexei: for us to know three languages, it's a must have, you know? and we think that it's normal. mara: well, the situation when i go in the shop and i try to buy wrong. reporter: and that's no rare occurrence. mara lives on moscow street, and the street does indeed lead to moscow. she moved here 12 years ago. now, she lives as a latvian in

"maskatschka," or, "little moscow." she also had her two children here. it's a neighborhood that doesn't really feel like part of the eu. mara loves the area, but acknowledges its less positive aspects. there are few jobs, and drug-dealers on every other street corner. it's a world unto itself, where people watch russian television. hardly anyone speaks latvian, even though it's impossible to vote, get a passport, or work for the government without the language. until the outbreak of the crimean conflict, latvian tv had no russian-language programming -- a gap exploited by moscow. now, state tv has a special new service catering to that audience. ms. safronova: it's never too late to do something. we've waited 25 years in latvia to have russian language tv for our minority. we lost a lot of people to russian tv.

reporter: in their attempt to compete with russian media, the russian language latvian broadcaster has found allies in riga's lovely art nouveau district. in 2014, the neighborhood became home to a segment of the russian intelligentsia -- 20 employees of russia's most successful internet portal, living in exile. getting a meeting with editor in chief ivan kolpakov is not easy. but we did. the "meduza" website takes an in-depth look at russia every day and offers an alternative to moscow's state propaganda. these young russians hope for a better time post-putin. they're used to finding their news for themselves on the internet. mr. kolpakov: they don't watch television. that's why the whole propaganda machine isn't working with them. this is what, right now, the specialists, the guys in the president's administration felt -- television doesn't work with

the huge and very important and very active part of the society. reporter: so what can actually be done in the face of headlines proclaiming the demise of latvia, and other propaganda? mr. kolpakov: right now, russia has a much better infrastructure than europe the usa or any western country. this is the unpleasant truth about this situation. reporter: alexei the photographer has been avoiding propaganda for quite some time. he's part of a younger sings. "a difficult riga, where new things are growing and a riga with high hopes for the future -- a bridge between russia and europe. michelle: no one in britain was more fervent -- dogmatic, even

-- in their desire to leave the eu than the nation's fishermen. pro-brexit campaigners promised they would enjoy exclusive access to british waters. the fate of north sea and english channel fish will be a highly contentious issue in the brexit negotiations. nowhere would be as badly affected by a ban as the industry in northern france, whose fishermen fear losing access to english waters. reporter: almost everyone at brixham fish market voted for brexit. the result of last summer's referendum was a cause for celebration for fishermen here in the southwest of england. they've been at odds with the eu for decades. mr. perkins: we can actually stand on our own two feet. somebody else can make the decisions rather than a bunch of 25 year olds sat in brussels. reporter: the fishermen hoped brexit would restore control over what they consider their fishing waters.

mr. young: we just hope that we can gain some of that back, to have a fair share of what's rightly the english channel. sleeve the english see the body of water as theirs. at the moment, boats from elsewhere in the eu are allowed to fish up to six nautical miles off the british coast. british fishermen have to stay 12 miles away from continental coastlines. there are only 12,000 british fishermen left, but they have great symbolic importance and are politically very active. mr. deas: the best deal will be to have an exclusive 12 mile limit for our coastal fishermen. reporter: such demands have unleashed shockwaves across the channel in france. in boulogne, fisherman depend on fish caught in british waters for their livelihoods. at stake -- several million

euros' worth of trade a year. mr. pinto: we're afraid of brexit. france -- and especially we here in the north of the country -- get 80% of our catch from british waters. reporter: losing their british catch is one thing. but what french fisherman now fear even more is dutch and belgian competitors fishing off their coastline as an alternative to the english channel. mr. pinto: it would completely exhaust our resources. the whole thing would endanger european co-existence. the next step would be for us to withdraw from the eu and forbid holland and belgium from fishing so-called "cod wars" was 40 repoyears ago.last back then, icelandic and british ships rammed one another in a dispute over fishing. eventually, diplomatic relations

were temporarily suspended between the countries. and tensions are now increasing again on either side of the english channel. british fishermen sell two thirds of their catch in europe. french fishermen are already calling for import levies. mr. robert: we have to stick to catch quotas -- while next door, they can fish all they want. reporter: ignorance, prejudice, and resentment -- familiar factors that are feeding yet another conflict. almost everyone we talked to in boulogne said they'd be voting for right-wing populist marine lepen in the upcoming presidential election. anger at the eu unites fishermen on both sides of the channel. mr. pinto: the eu hasn't understood the fishing world. there are far too many contradictory laws. that forces us french fishermen to ask the same questions as our british colleagues. and one day we might demand our own brexit -- a frexit. reporter: other member-nations following britain's example is a

nightmare scenario for proponents of a strong eu. they insist that the deal for britain to leave the union should mean worse conditions than for staying in. but british fishermen are adamant that this won't be the case for them. michelle: a row over fishing that highlights how even a relatively small industry may make waves in the brexit negotiations. when you think of a surfers paradise, azure skies and images of palm trees dotting the shores of bali, australia, or hawaii may come to mind. but for friends anton and constantine, gale force winds and snow blizzards are more their thing. they are trying to transform their home in kamchatka, a remote peninsula in the wilderness of siberia, into a magnet for european surfers. reporter: anton and konstantin are on their way to their favorite beach. the only way down there is by snowmobile. anton marozov grew up here in

the kamchatka region. his friend konstantin is visiting him from moscow. the peninsular in the far east of russia is about the same size and shape as california. it's said to be home to more volcanoes than people. and very few are willing to brave the icy waters of the northern pacific ocean. for them, surfing in places like bali is for lightweights, whereas kamchatka is rugged and exciting. a snowstorm appears out of nowhere. it batters the landscape and locals mercilessly for the next three days. moscow is 6700 kilometers away. most people here work in the fishing industry. a lot of bare necessities have to be imported. the local housing was built ring sovietimes, and has seen better days. anton's father used to work on a trawler.

another major employer in the region is the russian military. the military zone is off-limits. this is the base of the russian pacific nuclear submarine fleet. it's an inhospitable place. the surfers look like they belong in a parallel universe. mr. morozov: so long as there aren't any dogs flying through the air, it's good. the wind has calmed down. it was pretty stormy during the night. we've learned to live with it. but surfing's out of the question today. reporter: on the water, at least. instead, the lads repurpose their surfboards as snowboards. they're sturdy steeds, they say, and are made locally by friends. anton and konstantin want to see

surfing become a major industry in kamchatka. for the time being, locals think they're pretty crazy. but they have a vision. they've organized a photo exhibition designed to provide a glimpse of surfer culture, which is still relatively unknown in russia. mr. morozov: these are the first surfboards made by local lads in kamchatka. they've already come a long way. we're very proud of their craftsmanship. reporter: surfing enthusiasts have come from far and wide for tonight's party. they all hope that one day, surfing will be as big a deal here in russia as it is across the pacific in the u.s. after all, kamchatka is closer to seattle and tokyo than it is to moscow. and people here are open-minded. the surfers are convinced that laid-back surfer culture could do russia a lot of good.

the next day, anton and konstantin try their luck again. the storm's died down. it was years before konstantin from moscow dared venture into the chilly north pacific. the outside temperature is minus 15 degrees celsius. the water temperature hovers at about 1 degree plus. thanks to the north pacific current, the bering sea hardly ever freezes. anton has gone surfing when it was minus 22 degrees, and the water measured minus 4. when it's that cold, the foam on the waves does freeze. you can hear it creaking, he tells us. he says surfing in those conditions is an incredible adrenaline kick. only the most confident surfers are prepared to go in search of the perfect wave on the bering sea. mr. morozov: out there, you're on your own. the forces of the ocean are

incredibly powerful. you use up a lot energy fighting the current. today when i was trying to catch the waves, i could really feel the storm. reporter: surf's up -- in kamchatka. michelle: with the steady stream of tourists they've gained in recent years, the future of russian surfing may be closer than we think. that's it for today. in the meantime, goodbye. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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