captioning sponsored by wnet >> stewart: on this edition for saturday, september 5: thousands of migrants from africa and the middle east are on the move in europe as the european union debates what to do next; how the sordid business of smuggling people across borders has become a growth industry; and here in the u.s., the challenges of prosecuting sexual assault crimes on indian reservations. >> i never tried to report it >> stewart: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. judy and josh weston. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america--

designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, alison stewart. >> stewart: good evening. thanks for joining us. i'm alison stewart, in for hari sreenivasan. by bus, by train and on foot, thousands of migrants and refugees are on the move across europe. after days being held back, at least 6,500 migrants crossed from hungary into neighboring austria today, with several thousand continuing west, hoping to reach munich, germany. hundreds more who did not board the hungarian buses and trains began walking the 100 miles from budapest toward vienna. german chancellor angela merkel said today every asylum seeker

arriving in her country will get a fair hearing, and there is no cap on the number germany will accept. the journey over land comes after people typically leaving from war-torn syria, libya, iraq and afghanistan arrive on the continent by boat. 2,500 migrants who made it this week to greece were ferried today from a refugee station on the island of lesbos to athens. >> it's difficult. there is shortage in water. we have kids, we have small babies. we have a shortage in all kinds of service. >> stewart: the desired destinations for the migrants vary. germany is granting asylum to the most refugees and expects to welcome as many as 800,000 by year's end. we get more now from i.t.n. reporter james mates. >> reporter: 2:00 in the morning, and quite suddenly their ordeal in hungary was over. just three hours after the hungarian government finally backed down, the buses were being loaded. for five days, they'd lived in squalor outside budapest

station. now they were on the move and they were happy. >> i feel really awesome. it's great, yeah. i'm really happy that these buses are going to go to austria. >> germany. >> reporter: and with that, it was off to the austrian border and beyond, a journey many thought might end in hungary will now take them to germany, where they believe they'll be welcomed and given the chance of a new life. behind them, in the underground concourse they called home, lay the debt triitous of an abandoned refugee camp. the weary matchers who set off on food many punishing hours earlier were picked up from where they'd slept. they'd have to walk no longer but the decision to go on alone cleel had pushed the authorities into backing down. and not a moment too soon as torrential rain swept through. by early morning, they were across the border and waiting patiently for a train that would

take them west or north. they didn't care which, as long as it was to germany. the inhab tants of a border town had laid out food, drink, even a selection of secondhand clothing. in small, well-organized groups, families first, they were allowed on to a train, this one to vienna. in their excitement, some ran to the carriages, although in truth, there was little need. >> thank you. very, very happy. >> reporter: back in hungary, there are many thousands more still waiting to come. 100 buses have been promised. that may not be enough. this morning, not prepared to wait, another group set off to walk to the border, though this time they may not have to trudge as far. in munich, the first wave of this exodus stepped on to german soil with a wave and a smile, and no wonder. a journey that frequently started in syria took in turkey, greece, macedonia, serbia,

hungary, austria, now at an end. >> stewart: newshour special correspondent malcolm brabant is covering the surge of migrants into northern europe and how neighboring countries are treating the crisis differently. this week, a syrian refugee, now in sweden, told him about his journey across the mediterranean sea, leaving his family behind. >> how can i bring my children to here? i can't make... put him in this boat, dangerous boat. i can't do that. for, me maybe it's okay. but for my children, it's impossible. >> stewart: malcolm brabant joins me now via skype from copenhagen, denmark. malcolm, in times of danger, the dwengzal wisdom is to get the children out, get them to a safer place, but from your reporting, the opposite seems true in this situation. why is that? >> reporter: well, i think that parents are genuinely terrified of the dangering in the mediterranean. as he was saying, it's absolutely a complete lottery. it's russian roulette.

you don't know what sort of vessel you're get spog. there have been horrendous stories of traffickers beating people down into the holds of boats, and it just takes a small shift in the balance of a boat with people rushing to one side or the other for it to tip over because they're all so heavily overcrowded so there are many parents taking the decision that it's not worth risking their children's lives, and they're leaving them behind, and they're coming to country where's they hope there will be a good family reunionification policy, as sweden has. but mr. al hab ash, has been waiting for 10 months. >> stewart: the war in syria has been going on for yiewrs but what has been the catalyst for all these people leaving now? >> i think there are two things, as far as we can see, really. right now, it's the end of the summer, and the mediterranean suddenly changes from being a fairly benevolent sea as it has been in the past three months into something that is very perilous indeed. there's a wind that blows in september that creates winds of

force 8-10, and it's extremely dwrus. even just for the three miles that it takes you to get across from the turkish coast to an island like less boss, for example, the waves can be incredibly high, so bad, that greek ferries won't sail in this weather. there is a rush to get across before the weather changes. but, also, people i have been speaking to on lesbos, one of the main eelds people come to in greece, they're saying what we're hearing from the syrians is the the situation inside damascus, the syrian capital, is becoming very grave, indeed, and there is an imperative to get out. maybe there is something happening on the various war fronts there that is driving people out. all of the refugees that you talk to on the various stages of the route, they're all in touch with each other. they know which places are-- you know, the ways to go. they're getting messages backwards and forwards, and, you know, they must be sort of able to read the ruins to see europe is wavering at the moment. countries don't want to be on the wrong side of history

because this is a very emotional time for people, especially after the publication of that terrible picture of the little boy who drowned. >> stewart: from your reporting, you've talked to folks who were businessmen, and from other stories that i've read, there seems to be a middle-class and upper-middle-class movement here of people finally deciding to leave. why are they finally deciding to leave? why did they stay in place? , and, two, what does this mean for people who don't have money to get out? >> the one thing that is really quite noticeable, actually, on the road, the people who do seem to have money are syrians. they all talk about having a fairly prosperous lifestyle. but if you go on to social meade cra and look at people from human rights watch, for example, they've been posting pictures saying if you wonder why it is that people are leaving now, have a look at this photograph, and what they're doing is posting pictures of places like cobani, the place on the turkish-syrian border where there was a massive battle between isis and the kurds, and

the place is completely flattened. they're also posting pictures of homs, syria's third city, and the place is absolutely devastated. it looks as though there's nothing left standing. so how people can stay there is beyond belief. some of the cooler heads in europe would say, well, hang on a minute. those people coming from syria, you know, they're not coming directly from the war. once they got out of the country they've been in safer places like in turkey, like in jordan, so they're not exactly running away from war. they want to get away from that particular area. but you talk to people in the refugee agencies and others who have been to that area and you say you just cannot stay in these terrible conditions in the refugee camps on front line state because temperatures are just absolutely appalling. the conditions are not great, and that's why there's this big shift towards europe. >> stewart: malcolm brabant, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. >> stewart: one way migrants get to and through europe is with the help of smugglers who offer passage on rickety boats, by taxi and truck, and even by chartered aircraft, all for a price.

a truck with 71 dead migrants found along an austrian highway last week called attention to the dangers of smuggling. in the libyan coastal city of zuwara yesterday, 300 people protested the human trafficking and the rash of migrants dying on their shore." washington post" reporter michael birnbaum has investigated the migrant smuggling trade and joins me now via skype from brussels. michael, when did this kick into high gear as a true, full-fledged business? >> well, this has been an evolving transformation over the last couple of years as this tremendous flow of refugees and migrants has increased into europe. but what we've seen is that a lot of preexisting criminal networks, especially in eastern europe, have sort of just changed their business. they see this as a good opportunity, and now they're offering their services to people who want to make it into western europe. >> stewart: and i have to imagine the internet has played

a role in this exploding. >> reporter: that's right. it's now easier than ever, if you are a migrant or if you are a refugee, just to look, particularly on facebook. there are smugglers who just advertise their services very openly, usually in arabic, on facebook. you can look. you can find promises of passage for, you know, whatever kind of level of service you want. but typically from turkish refugee camps to particular countries inside europe, and those prices range anywhere from $2,500, up to $10,000 or even more. >> stewart: without being flip i'm going to use the word "menu." there are practically menus of options for people out there. >> reporter: well, there are a couple different ways-- they really do look like menus. there are entire lists that just go down with different prices.

and the choices range both from the country that you go to, the countries that are particularly desirable are germany and sweden. they've been the most open to refugees. and then the level of service along the way. so that can range anything from below deck on a rickety fishing boat coming up from egypt or libya that will take you to a greek or italian island in the mediterranean. and i spoke to a swedish police official who told me that in one instance, there was even a private charter jet that took off from istanbul, just flew straight into stockholm, and when people landed, they claimed asylum right when they hit the tarmac. >> stewart: what are people doing, what are countries doing to combat the smuggling? >> reporter: well, just in the last week, week and a half, austria in particular, where the 71 people were found dead on the

side of a highway, has significantly increased highway controls. they have been searching basically all trucks and vans that are entering austria from hungary. that's been a big effort that takes a lot of work. they have been finding more instances of people smuggling, including a couple of very dangerous situations when people were, indeed, locked into the back of these vehicles without much air. but it's a tremendous challenge, and, you know, i was speaking to a colleague of mine hois in hungary today where there's yet another crisis, and all of those austrian police who have been doing that have been tasked today with other jobs trying to process just the tremendous inflow of asylum seekers who are coming in.

>> stewart: michael birnbaum from the "washington post," thank you so much for your time today. >> thank you so much for having me. >> stewart: learn about the fishermen who have found themselves on the front lines of the migrant crisis. watch our report from tunisia online at www.pbs.org/newshour. according to the justice department, native american women are 2.5 times more likely than other women in the u.s. to be sexual assault victims. often, the assailants are not native americans, even on indian reservations. because of a legal loophole, non-native perpetrators have commonly been able to escape prosecution for crimes committed on reservations. in tonight's "signature segment," we look at the new federal law giving indian tribal courts the ability to bring those who commit these crimes to justice. newshour's stephen fee has this updated story. >> reporter: lisa brunner spent her childhood on and around the white earth indian reservation, a huge tract of land in northern minnesota that's home to around

4,000 native americans like her. brunner grew up surrounded by domestic violence and since has become a leading advocate for native victims of abuse. >> it's happening every day. >> reporter: native women in the u.s. face some of the highest levels of violence of any group. according to the justice department, one in three native women has been raped, and three out of five will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. lisa says she too is a victim of both rape and sexual assault. she had enough, she says, when a boyfriend slapped her across the face while she cradled her nine- month-old child. >> and i packed up and left the next day, and i never went back. and i vowed thereafter that no man will ever touch me again. i will not... my babies will not know the life that i had to survive. >> reporter: brunner says that as an adult, she seldom went to the police and that much of that has to do with the fact that some of the men who attacked her were not native americans.

so, why does that matter? up until recently, non-native people were immune from prosecution in tribal courts. that's crucial for two reasons: one, the justice department says non-native men commit the vast majority of assaults and rapes against native women; and two, federal attorneys, who are often the only lawyers who can try non-natives who commit crimes on reservations, often don't prosecute them. >> i knew when i had been raped and been victimized and whatnot, i never tried to report it because nothing... i knew nothing would ever happen. i knew nothing would be done. >> when you have the combination of the silence that comes from victims who live in fear and a lack of accountability by outside jurisdictions to prosecute that crime, you've created, if you will, the perfect storm for domestic violence and sexual assault, which is exactly what all the statistics would sort of bear out. >> reporter: in a 1978 decision,

the u.s. supreme court said indian tribes with their own tribal justice systems and courts were not allowed to charge non-indians unless congress changed the law. congress didn't act for 35 years. then, two years ago, when congress reauthorized the violence against women act, the vawa, lawmakers granted tribal courts jurisdiction over a limited number of domestic and dating violence crimes committed by non-indians on reservations. that change took effect in march. earlier, three indian reservations had taken part in a pilot program for those prosecutions: one in arizona; one in oregon; and this indian reservation, the tulalip reservation, an hour's drive north of seattle. theresa pouley, who has served as chief judge on the tulalip tribal court since 2009, says the responsibility to prosecute offenders on indian reservations belongs to tribal courts. >> the confused jurisdiction in indian country, which leaves those responsibilities oftentimes to the state and

federal government who don't effectively prosecute those crimes, creates this place where you have a category of people on indian reservations who are essentially above the law. >> reporter: what does this tribal provision in vawa do to help close that gap? >> it allows me to treat all domestic violence perpetrators exactly the same, indian or non- indian. so, i have authority over indians who commit that crime; this just gives me authority over non-indians who commit the exact same crime. >> reporter: in the past 17 months, the tulalip tribal prosecutor has brought charges against nine alleged non-indian domestic violence defendants; five pleaded guilty, two await trial, one was referred to federal prosecutors, and one case was dismissed. but will this new authority actually help stop the crisis of violence against indian women? one concern: the new law only covers domestic and dating violence; it does not include

crimes like assault by a stranger or even rape. michelle demmert is the tulalip tribe's lead attorney. >> unfortunately, it's not quite gone far enough. in just three recent cases, we had children involved, and we're not able to charge on the crimes that were committed against those children, including endangerment, criminal endangerment, possibly assault, other attendant or collateral crimes. >> reporter: you're able to prosecute one crime but not the other. >> that's right. that's right. >> what we have allowed is the authority of tribal course to try u.s. citizens in their court for very good reasons. >> reporter: former u.s. senator tom coburn, from oklahoma, a state with one of the highest native american populations, co- sponsored the original violence against women act 20 years ago, and he thinks the change in the law is wrong, that tribes should not be allowed to exert their

authority over non-indians. >> you cannot cast tribal sovereignty on me. i'm not a memberf the tribe. >> reporter: instead of granting expanded authority to tribal courts, coburn says congress should have required federal prosecutors to take on domestic violence crimes on reservations more vigorously. coburn also believes the new law could be found unconstitutional. >> there's no way you can assure and guarantee constitutional provisions under what passed. so, this provision will eventually be thrown out, be challenged, and on appeal they'll lose because you cannot guarantee american citizens their constitutional rights if they're non-tribal members in a tribal court. >> reporter: but the justice department's sam hirsch says any tribe that proceeds with prosecutions must adhere to a list of constitutional guarantees laid out in the new law. >> here's the evidence that it's working: under the pilot

project, more than two dozen non-indians have now been charged with domestic violence and dating violence crimes. they all have the right to go straight to federal court and ask to be released if their rights are being violated. and how many have done so? zero. >> reporter: so far? >> so far. >> reporter: hirsch concedes the law is limited, especially because it only covers domestic violence and not more serious crimes. but he says the justice department is stepping up its prosecution rate against non- natives. >> at the same time, we have to recognize that when federal prosecutors and f.b.i. agents are often located hundreds of miles away, many hours' drive away, it's very hard for them to play the role of local law enforcement, especially on misdemeanor level crimes and lower-level felonies. >> reporter: in the years leading up to the tulalip reservation's ability to prosecute non-indians, chief judge theresa pouley says she's already seen one mark of success. >> the reporting of domestic

violence and sexual assault cases have gone up at tulalip for the last three years steadily as victims know that perpetrators will be held accountable. and as they know that they're going to be listened or heard, they actually report it more often. so, if you just look at the numbers, you sort of see that it changes the level of reporting, and that's really the first step towards stopping it. >> reporter: back on the white earth reservation, lisa brunner is still concerned about the limitations of the new law, that it doesn't cover crimes like rape. it's especially personal because she says one of her daughters was raped a few years ago by non-native men who came on to the reservation. >> of course, they threatened her, and she didn't tell me until after the fact. but we did report it to law enforcement, and that was it. >> reporter: nothing happened after that? >> no. nothing. >> reporter: in the past six months since indian tribes obtained the authority to prosecute non-indian defendants, five tribes have done so and

more plan to join them. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> stewart: the u.s. forest service is warning campers in california to head far south of a wildfire burning east of fresno. the so-called "rough fire" has scorched 134 square miles, making it the biggest of this summer's fires in the drought- ridden state. this fire, sparked by a lightning strike five weeks ago, is 25% contained. all campgrounds and lodges in kings canyon national park are now closed. campers and hikers are advised to head for the mountains south of the park to avoid the smoke. in japan, residents are returning to a town they fled because of the fukushima nuclear power plant disaster four and half years ago. naraha, 12 miles from fukushima, is the first of seven abandoned towns to have its evacuation order lifted by the government. but half of the town's former 7,000 residents say they're not

ready to go back mainly due to concerns about radiation. the government has said it will give out radiation meters to residents and monitor the local water supply. fukushima experienced a meltdown and release of radioactive gas after a march 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked its power out. a hacker from latvia faces a two year u.s. prison sentence for creating a computer virus that infected over a million computers worldwide. deniss calovskis pleaded guilty yesterday in manhattan federal court to writing code for the" gozi" virus, which stole personal bank account information. prosecutors say the scheme robbed banks of tens of millions of dollars between 2005 and 2012. the virus infected 40,000 u.s. computers. calovskis is the second hacker convicted in the scheme. on pbs newshour weekend tomorrow, does requiring extra reading time after school improve students' proficiency? >> we want to hone in on the reading skills and then just push the students academically

as much as possible. >> stewart: and timely, toyota is investing $50 million in artificial intelligence and robotics. the money is not to develop self-driving cars. instead, it will go to stanford and m.i.t. over the next five years to create technology that will help drivers stay alert and avoid accidents. and queen elizabeth is on the verge of becoming britain's longest serving monarch. the 89-year-old queen, seen here in scotland today, was crowned at the able of 25 in 1952. come wednesday, she will have reigns for 63 years and seven months, passing queen victoria, who reigned from 1837-1901. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm alison stewart. thanks for watching, and good night.

captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. judy and josh weston. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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