♪ michelle: hello and welcome to "focus on europe." i'm michelle henery. glad that you could join us. slavery is a thing of the past in europe, or so one thought. it is back in the fields of italy. the victims are mostly migrants. almost 100,000 arrived on the italian coast this year alone - in search of a better life. many did not survive the journey. and for those who made it, the plight continues. more and more end up on the huge plantations of southern italy where they toil seven days a week in inhumane conditions, without water, electricity or adequate food. some of those responsible have now been formally charged with enslavement. our reporter went there to find out how this could have happened in modern-day europe.

>> the "gran ghetto" near italy's southern city of foggia is home to some 1500 people during harvest time. although "home" is hardly the right word. the migrant labourers from africa live here in appalling conditions. they earn up to a maximum of 20 euros a day. not enough to afford a proper place to live. >> three of us sleep here. this is the kitchen where we make food. we have rice. and oil, that's it. >> recently the water supply was cut off here. but the migrants stayed anyway. partly because they aren't the only ones who depend on their meagre wages. >> if i don't work here, who's going to feed my children in

africa? sometimes i send 200 euros home, sometimes 150. if i earn two hundred, i keep hundred and send a hundred back home. >> in many of southern italy's plantations, it's day labourers from africa who do much of the work. they come here in their thousands. modern-day slaves, exploited by unscrupulous farmers. in the town of nardo in apulia, a police video shows the ramshackle accommodation given sleep here, never saw any wages, even though they worked for months. state prosecutors called it "enslavement", a crime that italy has only introduced in recent years. the slave holders in this case were the foremen. >> the foremen decided when and what they could eat. whether and what they could drink.

and he sold everything for an exorbitant price. a small bottle of mineral water cost three euros. a bread roll three euros fifty. and even though 25 people were taken to work on one truck, each one had to pay five euros for the journey. >> a police raid resulted in the arrest of twenty people. eleven of them received prison sentences, ranging up to eleven years each. they included a farmer and a number of foremen. this man, known as guiseppe the tunisian, was especially brutal. their victims have yet to receive compensation. cudjoe still lives in nardo but he's never seen any money for his work. after he testified in court, it's been difficult for him to find work - and he's even received threats. >> they only told me i should be far away from them.

they only tell me secretly, please. >> in other words, keep well away from us. >> so if you have resistance, you have to understand what is going on. you get what i'm talking? yeah, that's how it is. >> away from the public eye, illegal slums have mushroomed. this ghetto in southern italy is the largest in the country. it's not possible to film here openly, the nigerian mafia control everything here. the ghetto is right next to the village of borgo mezzanone. local people feel the government has let them down. they live side by side with thousands of african slave-like laborers. >> the black people don't buy anything. maybe they spend thirty or fifty cents, ok. but they just taur money, they don't bring any. they've taken work away from all those who used to work in the

fields or in the factories. now it's only black people working everywhere. >> every day, the ghetto grows, moving a little closer to borgo mezzanone. the italian authorities are unable to cope. the farmers are happy for the cheap labour, leaving local residents frustrated and angry. >> everything's changed. they used to come and empty the rubbish and sweep the streets, now no one comes anymore. we're just left to our own devices. there's nothing we can do. >> i can't move away even i wanted to, no one would buy my house, or at least not for a reasonable market price. why doesn't the state just buy my house, and the houses of all the people who want to move away? then the state can do what it wants, it does anyway. they could offer the village to the migrants.

why don't we create a village for the migrants? >> the problem extends right across southern italy. in calabria, it's time for the orange harvest. parts of italian agriculture are firmly in the hands of the n'drangheta, the mafia. african refugees are exploited here as a matter of course. one reason why journalists are not welcome out in the fields. but one worker agrees to talk to us. he explains how the farmers manage to bypass italian labour laws. so one of these boxes full of mandarins earns you one euro. if you have ten boxes, you get ten euros. on saturday and sunday, we work near the road. the regulators don't work on those days. so then we pick everything along the road. then on monday we move further back. >> why?

>> because that's when they do checks. the people here do have contracts, but of course not proper ones. >> another problem -- because many of the migrant labourers don't have proper documentation, they don't have health insurance. so doctors from the aid organization "emergency" treat them for free. the most common problem diagnosed in this clinic is malnourishment. they say things here are almost as bad as in parts of africa. >> they often sleep right alongside seven or eight other people in one room or tent. if one of them gets an infection - an intestinal or respiratory infection, it's very likely that all the others will get it too. >> any yet people keep coming from africa's poorest countries and crisis-hit regions. part of the reason for that is a surprising one, and especially tragic. >> everyone wants to live here because we only send photos of

the nice things -- venice, milan, turin, rome. and when you go back to africa and take nice clothes with you, all your friends think it's a good place to earn a living. but the reality is different. >> this year alone, over a hundred thousand migrants have arrived in italy. how many of them have returned home is not known. this and the recent reports on libya's slave trade are a reminder of the continuing challenges faced by refugees. michelle: the influx of refugees remains one of the biggest challenges facing europe. yet the continent is already struggling with many of its own self imposed problems. take brexit for instance. as the deadline for britain to quit the eu approaches, ireland's border has been one of the trickiest sticking points of the negotiations. as it stands now, there are no border and customs controls between eu member state ireland and northern ireland, which is part of the uk.

but this could all change with brexit, and irish businesses across all industries could suffer. like tourism. tour guide brent hearne is already feeling left out in the cold. >> dublin's usually a popular tourist destination in october. but today, hardly anyone is aboard brent hearne's sightseeing bus. british visitors to ireland have become rare. the looming brexit has had negative consequences for british buying power abroad. >> the currency is the main thing. there's no benefit. before, they were getting 25% benefits so they give 300 sterling for 500 euros. >> naturally, hearne's sightseeing bus passes by dublin's famous guinness brewery.

he says brexit will also impact how the beer is produced. >> it goes up to the north. the canning and the bottling. the cans you get in germany. that's done in the north of ireland. and it has to go though a different country. different jurisdiction. because it's part of the uk. >> brexit will complicate irish imports and exports -- almost all trade is done via dublin's harbour, from where it's transported over british soil into the eu. after brexit, this british soil will become non-eu territory. james quinn runs a freight business with 9 drivers. after brexit, trucking to and from europe will take much longer. and cost him more money. >> i think we have huge disadvantages. we already -- i often say it's like a horse race. we in ireland have like a 2,5 mile or 4 km race to get to somewhere like brussels, or antwerp or cologne. but if you're in mainland europe, in holland or belgium or germany, you're much closer to

the centre than we are. and constantly we're fighting this battle to arrive at the finish post at the same time as everybody else. >> it takes an hour to get from dublin to the border with northern ireland. quinn takes us off the highway to show us the border: it's barely noticable. >> so now once again we're in northern ireland. and as you can see we've crossed it's a pretty seamless road the whole way here to donegal. it weaves in and out the south of ireland, north of ireland, south of ireland all the time. and the only way you can tell is by the difference in the road-markings and the road signs. and pretty much this is how it is once you leave the highway all whole way to the border of donegal. over 350 km. >> here, the border's actually visible. it looks like a memorial site. it's supposedly the only place where old border facilities still exist. >> they're gonna have to come to live in some form or other. there's gonna be controls, whether people like it or not. the notion that you can leave this whole highway open with no controls at all as the backdoor to the eu is just a non-runner.

no matter what the british think. there's gonna be customs presence here. and if there's customs presence here we're gonna have paperwork. i had trucks in switzerland late on paperwork and expenses was a nightmare. and the swiss have been our neighbours since the inception of the eu so you would think they would down there have it down to a fine art. but it was anything but a fine art. it was difficult and time-consuming and it was troublesome and border closed at lunchtime on saturday. >> hundreds of mid-sized companies will have to contend with the consequences of brexit. cootehill engineering is one of them. the company's 10 employees produce steel and metal machine parts. gerry mcintyre founded the company 25 years ago. he's worried that brexit could mean that his company won't survive. >> this particular job here is a cast aluminium flange. it's cast in england. the company buys it, it's imported here, i machine it for them. they fix it to a hose, a hand-built rubber hose. that's exported all over the

world. and as regards materials, 95% of our materials even i use come in through england and from england. >> today's workday is over. but nobody knows if the company will have to fold after brexit. many irish are frustrated. there's madness and sadness. there's sadness for us, yeah. you know my whole life's tied up in this. the madness is because somebody else decided to leave europe we're being heavily penalized. and we feel like, you know, once again, the british are the british. the government is holding us to ransom. >> nobody consulted the irish before voting for brexit. even though they might pay the highest price: economically and politically. michelle: it's been more than twenty years since homosexuality was decriminialised in russia, yet it is believed to be one of

the hardest countries in europe for gay people to live in. surveys reveal that much of the russian public endorse criminal prosecution of lesbians and gays, and that many people consider homosexuality to be a disease. if they demonstrate for their rights, as here in st petersburg, it usually doesn't take long before the security services crack down on them swiftly and severely. our correspondent yuri rescheto met a young woman in saint petersburg, who shared her very personal story of what it was like to come out as a lesbian to her parents. >> they ran around shouting, "stupid lesbian!" and told me to drop dead. they attacked me out of sheer hate. ♪

>> while dancing i met people with whom i felt comfortable. most of them are either bisexual or lesbian. that gives me a feeling of freedom. when i told my mother, she cried -- a lot. it was a shock. >> honestly. i even felt a certain physical aversion. my god. my daughter's a freak -- a monster? at any rate, something unpleasant. and what should i tell other people? a few who must never find out -- not under any circumstances. >> i can see she wants to understand me, but can't.

her generation was raised in the soviet era. >> once we were on holiday in greece. there were some pilgrims by a monastery. suddenly one woman fell to her knees and crawled to the monastery. perhaps it was a ritual, so god would help heal a sick family member. then i thought: if someone told me crawling on my knees would make my daughter healthy again, i'd do it. >> the russian reaction is brutal. some parents want to disown their children and throw them out of the house. an acquaintance was almost killed by her father. he beat her violently. my classmates found out when i was fourteen. they spit at me, hit me, whacked me on the head with a full backpack, humilitated and insulted me.

i was in utter despair. all i did was cry. i thought my life was over. homosexuality is viewed as something dishonorable here. society takes an aggressive stance against it. when i know that i can't handle it anymore i'll probably leave the country. michelle: they keep their children out of school and beat them more than twenty times a day. yet they are allowed to live peacefully, unchallenged in the czech republic. the controversial religious sect, the twelve tribes, left neighboring bavaria after charges of child abuse saw police place seven of their children with foster families.

they have now quietly resettled just over the border in the sleepy czech town of skalna. just behind the czech-german border lies the czech town of skalna. >> it's a sanctuary for the christian fundamentalist "twelve tribes" sect. "skalna's" major finds nothing wrong with that. >> it would be problematic if they tried to tell or convince others to live like them. but to my knowledge, that's not the case. >> this "twelve tribes" propaganda video advertises the sects' principles of parenting -- it openly supports physically punishing and beating children. >> wise fathers use a thin piece of reed to keep their offspring on the right path. >> the "twelve tribes" sect was taken to court for child abuse

in germany, where it was previously based. robert pleyer used to be a member of the sect for 20 years. then, he left. because he didn't want to use corporal punishment on his kids. >> i couldn't keep living like that. i had to get me and my kids out of there. >> life inside the sect was cruel, as this undercover footage from a tv journalist from several years ago documents. back then, the "twelve tribes" were still based in southern germany. >> corporal punishment? sure, a child might get slapped now and then. but for children to be regularly beaten 20 or 25 times a day? nobody has ever admitted that. >> robert pleyer could take it no more. and then a police investigation began, leading to one of the

sect's teachers receiving a two-year sentence for child abuse. after which the "twelve tribes" opted to leave germany. we wanted to meet the sect in "skalna" to find out if they'd changed their ways. our interview request was ignored. so we travelled there anyway, and did manage to speak to one its members. he expresses surprise at our request. when we insist that we spoke to a colleague of his the day before he only offers that we send him a list with our questions. he refuses to answer any of our questions on the spot. the "twelve tribes" don't want to give a public statement at all. skalna's" residents have heard

rumours about the sect. but they remain tolerant. >> i don't mind them. they've done nothing to offend me. they go to work, and they have every right to live their life like anybody else. >> i met some of them at the playground. and we started chatting about their faith and so on. >> i've got a problem with them. they're kind of strange. they don't come outside. i don't know what to make of >> we talked to skalna's priest piotr libner to see what he thinks of the controversial sect. he said he was shocked when he first heard about them. then regensburg's bishop reassured him the "twelve tribes" cause no trouble. and then piotr libner told us they're doing everything to fit into the local community. >> one time, i didn't know why, they walked around skalna with plastic bags in their hands. someone from the town, i think it was the mayor, told me they

wanted to do something for their local town they live in. so they'd decided to clean rubbish off the streets every friday. >> that's what the sect's founder, elbert spriggs, always said. he said, "head out, collect rubbish." then people will hold you in high esteem. propaganda methods like these distract people from what's really happening inside. >> and it's working. in "skalna", nobody's asking questions about what's going on inside the sect. and that, says robert pleyer, was a problem in germany as well for far too long. michelle: the twelve tribes sect are active worldwide. from the field to the plate, vegetables should be grown and sold locally.

say environmentalists. and if possible without gaining too many food miles. experts add this is not only good for the environment but preserves vitamins. but is this even possible in the middle of a large, bustling city like london? agricultural pioneers who grow vegetables and herbs there say yes. and in a place that had a completely different purpose some 70 years ago, 33 meters below the ground. >> fresh greens are not the first thing that come to mind while walking through london's concrete jungle. but, in the district of clapham, 33 meters underground it's a sea of green. overhead the tube rumbles past, underneath herbs sprout. fennel, coriander and broccoli are grown in this old world war ii bomb shelter. now it's found a new purpose -- thanks to stephen dring and his partners at growing underground.

using their green thumbs and infrared lamps, they create a feast for the tastebuds. where possible, they employ energy-saving led lights. the plants grow on coco coir bricks watered with a nutrient solution. >> no, you need to control the environment. and that's exactly what we do down here. we have control over the heat, over the light, over the watering regime, over the humidity, so we can provide the plants exactly what they want, 24/7, 365 days a year. >> and they can be delivered to local restaurants or markets within 4 hours of being harvested. so they taste fresh, yet cost no more than conventionally grown veggies. after three years they expect to be in the black soon. with more and more people living in cities, it's a global concept that works locally. we're looking at additional sites within the uk, to roll out in the next 18 months. and we're already identifying sites across, sort of globally: us, europe and asia as well.

>> so, once you're through that break-even point, and you've proved the model. >> but what do folks above ground think of the stuff grown below? >> underground, wow, that's amazing! in clapham? >> in clapham, yeah! >> i love the coriander. it tastes like happiness. >> i don't know whether people would favor the idea of things being grown in a more natural environment. >> the underground gardeners aim to convince with the quality of their greens. they've already overcome bigger problems, like the weekend partiers who once got into the tunnel and trampled all over their produce. michelle: if it's a way to bring more fresh vegetables to more people, then i say go for it! thank you for watching. good bye.

s center in old saybrook, connecticut, it's the kate. ♪ there's two ana gasteyers. i'm with tv people and i', someone goes, what are you doing, this weekend and i'm, i've got a concert. oh, i didn't know you sang. yeah, i sort of have this other life. ♪ i was a very disciplined and rigorous musician as a child, played violin, then i went to interlocken which is an internationally known music program as a violinist, god help me, and that was what i sort of thought i was going to be when i grew up. (playing violin) but i went off to college and i found comedy and i loved comedy and i found sort of my tribe. i was encouraged to go to los angeles and i joined the groundlings. the groundlings, thank god, is a really big launching pad for saturday night live. they scout there and they saw me next thing i knew i was on national television on a huge well known platform.