[ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight these young syrians on a dangerous journey as thousands of migrants travel thousands of miles hoping they'll get a chance to start over in europe. we're joining this river of refugees for a firsthand look at what's really happening on the ground. plus, she was forced to hand over her miss america crown in disgrace after a nude photo scandal. but over three decades later vanessa williams is returning as head judge. tonight she tells our robin roberts exclusively about her big comeback. and new view on donald trump. the woman of "the view" taking the republican presidential candidate to task today. >> donald, the thing that we want you to do is you've got to get a little bit more informed on what's going on in women's issues. >> how is he responding?

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♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ just you and i ♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ and oh the best it could be ♪ just you and i ♪ good evening. as president obama pledges to help european countries shoulder

the burden of the worsening refugee crisis, my "nightline" coanchor dan harris there is with some of his most opt his stick travelers. young, social media savvy, and with only desperation back home they welcome the uncertainty of the future. tonight, their story. >> reporter: it's the middle of the night and we're with a group of several hundred scared refugees. moving en masse quickly, quietly, through farmland. it is pitch black. trying to sneak across is border into hungary. this is the largest mass migration in the history of europe since world war ii. this is the front lines of it. as they move through the night, there are stops and starts. everybody's very nervous.

there are rumors flying about thieves in the bushes or cops up ahead. everybody's very jumpy. they have good reason to be anxious. they've seen all the videos of hungarian police clashing with refugees. they've also seen this now-infamous clip of the hungarian camera woman tripping a refugee carrying his child in his arms. we have come to the hungarian border following 11 young syrian refugees whose journey from a war zone to a new life we've been tracking for days now. >> are you nervous about approaching the hungary border? >> of course we're nervous. because at this point we don't know how we are going to deal with it. >> reporter: the unofficial leader is ali, a normally jovial 21-year-old who tonight is on edge. >> my friends like telling me you must hide between the trees at night. if you are going to cross the hungarian border, you are going

to use it at night. >> reporter: all of the refugees on the road tonight are tense. >> no photos, no fote else to. >> reporter: as they switch buses near the border, a fight breaks out. ali struggles to keep his group together, pulling his friends up through the panicked mob. but as everyone is dropped off near the border, the group calms down and coalesces. and after a tense, confusing trek often in near total darkness, they make it to the border. it is just the latest harrowing step on a life-changing odyssey for these 11 young syrians who we've been following for more than two weeks. >> ali, where are you from? >> i'm from syria. >> hello. >> reporter: we first meet ali and his group in the turkish city of izmir on august 28th. he and his friends are not what

you might picture when you think of refugees. they're from wealthy families who lost nearly everything when the horrific, grinding war broke out in syria four years ago. >> you'd just be killed? >> yeah, any time. >> reporter: now he's hoping to start over in belgium. also in the group, ali's niece rawa, an 18-year-old who likes soccer, yoga, reading, and american music. >> bruno mars. i love bruno mars. >> bruno mars? >> yeah. >> reporter: she says she had an idyllic life in syria until the war. >> we were terrified. we were threatened. my dad was threatened and my uncles got threatened. you cannot have your children if you don't give us money. >> reporter: driven by desperation and hope, these 11 syrians are joining the human highway of refugees. hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence and terror in places like syria and iraq, making the 2,500-mile trip through turkey over to greece up

through southern europe and on to either germany or belgium. in order to get there, they first have to make the perilous passage from turkey to greece by water. they pay a smuggler $1,200 apiece to board a little boat that will take them to the island of lesbos. people have died making this journey. we were there when other refugees, including very young childr, came ashore. these people, families, have just risked their lives, everything they own, everybody they love, to cross this narrow strait to arrive here in greece. refugees are often jubilant when they arrive safely in greece. but like ali and his crew they are quickly hit with hard reality. a sweltering 25-mile walk to the port for a ferry over to the greek mainland. it's they:00 in the afternoon and we meet up with the group at a local cafe in athens as they wait for a bus that will take them north. >> we're scared if they are

going to open the roads or not. we don't have any choices. >> hello. >> reporter: rawa is more optimistic. >> it will be a good journey. >> reporter: they board the bus for the seven-hour journey to the border of macedonia. ali reflects on all that he's leaving behind, including his parents and his siblings. >> my heart is broken. i lost a lot of my friends. i'm going to miss my syria. i'm going to miss my home. i'm going to miss my cars. i'm going to miss also my bed. >> reporter: the next morning they cross from greece into macedonia. and that is where we lose them. their cell phones aren't working. and we can't locate them at the camps. we go north to the serbian border hoping to find 11 proverbial needles in a haystack of humanity. seemingly out of nowhere, they spot our producer jackie. >> jackie!

>> how is your trip? >> so now we are going to take the paper and we are going to belgrade. >> reporter: they board another bus for belgrade, their last stop before that most unwelcoming of borders, hungary it's been 13 long days since they left turkey and everybody's now worried about this next leg. >> i heard a lot of people saying different things. like the police will kill you, and you must escape from them. but i'm going to go see. >> reporter: en route, ali is glued to social media. his is a thoroughly modern migration. >> there's like a lot of paged on facebook. they can help us. >> so this is like being a refugee in the social media age? >> yeah. >> reporter: first they have to get to hungary. after leaving them at the border, we find them again hiring a smuggler to take them north to budapest. they make it safely from the border to the capital city which brings us to this afternoon.

when the group boards a train for austria. >> i feel good right now. >> why do you feel good now? >> the dangerous things are finished. >> reporter: as these young syrians near their final destinations, there are raging debates happening in european capitals about how many refugees to accept. today, president obama said america would take in 10,000 syrian refugees over the next year. but critics, including the republican presidential candidate carly fiorina, are raising security concerns. >> i mean, we are having to be very careful about who we let enter this country from these war-torn regions to ensure that terrorists are not coming here. >> i'm going to tell you something. muslims, they are not terrorists. we are not terrorists. >> reporter: just hours ago, ali and his friends got off a train and walked to the austrian border. >> now we arrive, huh? >> reporter: they're finally safe now and feeling both reflective -- >> so was it worth it? >> it was worth it.

>> reporter: and also a little giddy. asking us before we leave them to mark the moment together. >> you have a selfie stick? you traveled with a selfie stick? >> reporter: for "nightline," this is dan harris on the austria border. >> our thanks to dan for that report. next, vanessa williams heading back to the miss america pageant, opening up to our robin roberts about turning everything around after the scandal that forced her to resign in disgrace. and giving donald trump a different view of women's issues. my li'l buddy? and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital but i wondered if this was the right treatment for me. then my doctor told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots,

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so much has changed since vanessa williams was forced to give back her miss america crown. just after making history as the first african-american woman to win it. all over a nude photo scandal. nowadays people get famous on purpose that way. not that she's complaining about how it worked out for her. tonight williams tells our robin roberts exclusively about her triumphant return to the pageant. >> reporter: it's the preeminent

beauty pageant. miss america. this sunday, 52 women will strut down the runway hoping to win that crown. ♪ happy times >> reporter: and one woman who knows how they'll feel up there, vanessa williams. >> our new miss america is vanessa williams, miss new york! >> reporter: it was 32 years ago that vanessa williams, a then 20-year-old college junior, became the first african-american to win the title. did you understand the significance of being the first african-american woman? >> no. >> to be miss america? >> i didn't realize how big it would be. when i was touring, older black women thought they'd never see it in their lifetime. some people would cry. >> reporter: but nearly 11 months into her reign, scandal erupted. racy nude photos she had posed for years earlier were sold without her permission to

"penthouse" magazine. she turned to her parents. >> i said, i don't know what's going on but i'm sorry. we have no idea what's going to happen. i was stupid and i took some pictures and apparently they're coming out. and my parents said, okay, we love you, we'll deal. >> reporter: those photos published, pageant executives gave vanessa 72 hours to resign. >> i would like to start, can everyone hear me? >> reporter: or be stripped of her title. >> i officially relinquish my title of miss america 1984 to the miss america pageant. >> reporter: that resignation, the first and only in the pageant's 95-year history. but the scandal didn't keep vanessa from success. she flourished as a singer with hits like "dreaming." ♪ dreaming >> reporter: vanessa earned 11 grammy nominations before transitioning to tv's "ugly betty." >> loved your perfume. musky. >> reporter: even making her mark on broadway.

and now -- >> for the first time in 32 years, former winner vanessa williams returns. >> why now? >> i've got a perfect platform to kind of be reintroduced to the organization that catapulted me into notoriety and stardom. >> do you sometimes look at what's going on today and say, i lost my crown because of that, really? people are now releasing things to make a career. >> it's true. that's crazy. to think that, oh, you can look at a scandal and think that would be good for your career. where for me it took every ounce of credibility and talent that i had and wiped it out. >> reporter: it's been a long and emotional road back for vanessa, who decades ago was unsure whether to fight for her title. >> the heightened spectacle and circus of it all was kind of crazy. i had people that were saying, fight for the crown, fight for

the crown. and people chanting, don't give it up, don't secede. >> fight, vanessa, fight! >> reporter: back then her parents, especially her mother, didn't want her to give up. >> she felt the injustice was having performed my duties and excelled in everything that i was asked to do, plus doing 50% more of appearances that were not scheduled because i was the first african-american miss america. it was really hard for my mom when i decided to resign. she felt that i shouldn't have to, she felt it was the wrong moves. she remembers the pageant did not come to my support. they felt i needed to resign. she harbored a lot of resentment. >> reporter: meanwhile vanessa was unaware of what her parents, who were still living in her childhood home, were epdo you remembering. >> they refused to change their phone number so people would call, prank calls, really try to hurt their feelings. people would drive by the house and beat things and yell stuff at the house. there was graffiti that was

written on our local a and p in my home down that was derogat y derogatory. they took home the sign "home of new york miss america." an incredible amount of shame and humiliation. >> reporter: but they survived the storm. their mother/daughter bond so close they decide to write "you have no idea," a book about how they got through it all, including those infamous pictures. >> i didn't look at the shocking parts of them. i looked into her eyes. and i could see that she was uncomfortable. >> reporter: and even today, at age 52, vanessa turned to her mother for approval. >> my mother was the first person that i went to and said, listen, this opportunity came up. what are your thoughts? because if you're not down with it, i'm not doing it. >> reporter: preparations are already under way in atlantic city for the contestants. but the women should kenova necessary sa will be looking at more than just what they are wearing. >> miss america 2016 needs to be

worldly, needs to know what's going on. not only in the united states but the world. >> how do you want people to react when they hear you're going to be a judge? >> there's a lot of people that do feel that i should return. so the people that harbor the resentment, i understand it. but realize that all those people that were part of the old guard are no longer there. and there might be some more surprises. we'll see. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm robin roberts in new york. >> the 2016 miss america pageant airs sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on abc. and next, trump versus carson. inside the feud between the two republican presidential candidate front-runners. g) read text. (siri voice) adam, i'm sorry. i shouldn't have said that about your hair. it's not stupid. (ding) find hair salon. wow. yeah, that's right.

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finally tonight, donald trump on the hot seat yet again. he's gotten fresh trouble brewing with fellow presidential candidates. now our very own ladies of "the view" who gave him some advice today. >> and here's joining us on the phone right now. are you there, big d.? >> reporter: this morning donald trump getting a tough welcome on "the view." >> donald, you've got to get a little bit more informed on what's going on in women's issues. >> i do think i am very well informed. >> no, baby, i swear to you -- i swear to you, donald, you're misinformed here. >> reporter: the presidential hopeful now on the defense after attacking carly fiorina, telling "rolling stone" in a cover story, look at that face, would

anyone vote for that? can you imagine that, the face of our next president? trump later insisting it wasn't about her looks. >> i'm talking about her persona. she failed miserably at hewlett-packard. she then ran for senate, lost in a landslide. now she's running for president. >> then why don't you talk about her brain instead of her face? >> reporter: the candidate tangling with dr. ben carson who said this when asked how he's different from the billionaire. >> i realize where my success has come from. and i don't in any way deny my faith in god. and i think that probably is a big difference. >> reporter: today carson telling me those comments were not meant as a person a tack. >> do you want to clarify those remarks? >> there were a lot of people in the media who immediately seized upon it and said, this is an attack. then i think he took the bait. i'm not going to get into the mud and start slinging dirt. it's not the kind of person that i am. >> trump says he's a christian, that the bible is his favorite book. do you believe that? >> i think if he says that, we

should take him at his word. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm tom llamas in houston, texas. >> thomas jefferson said, we in america do not have government by majority, we have government by the majority who participate." thank you for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. as always, we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page and abcnews.com. good night, america. ♪

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