>> welcome to a new edition of focus on europe. thank you so much for joining us today. thousands of migrants dream of reaching europe. but at the eu borders they often get a rude awakening. likeere in theosnian refugee camp lipa. it recently burned to the ground. people have to brace the bitter winter cold. authorities ve set up w tents. but there's still no running water or electricity. from here, the eu seems within reach. for most migrants in the lipa

camp, bosnia is just a transit stop. their goal is reach theu and so they try and try to cross the border to neighboring croatia. for raheel zaf'r the living conditions in the camp are so terrible, that moving to a nearby forest seemed like a better option for him. his big goal is to someday make it to germany. and he's willing to endure numerous hardships to make his dream come true. >> this camp in the forest is what young pakistani raheel zafar has called home for three months. he shares his home-made tent with five other men. >> there is my sleeping bag. here is potato, chili, water, everything we have for dinner, onion. this is my food. >> every few days, aid organizations pa by. they distribute a bit of food and clothing to the approximately 30 men from pakistan and bangladesh living

in this camp near velika kladusa, a small town in bosnia-herzegovina, along the croatian border. but beyond that, all other supplies are scarce, says zafar, who often has to saw his own firewood. temperatures frequently drop below zero at this time of year. but he and the others want to hold out in the cold and mud until their next attempt to cross the border into croatia and enter the eu. >> i want to go to germany, frankfurt. i want to go there with friends. together. working in germany. i tried maybe 10, 15 times but the police caught me. they beat me. why do you come to croatia, why do you cross the border. you are illegal, you do not have documents. why do you cross the border? i tried so many times but "inshallah" one day i'll be successful. no problem. >> zafar hopes to find work in germany.

it was a daily struggle for survival in his hometown of karachi, pakistan. life here in the forest is hard, says zafar, but still better than in the lipa refugee camp an hour's drive to the south, where he previously stayed. the lipa camp has been in the international headlines for weeks, first for being cleared out, and then because it burned down. these bunk beds are a lasting reminder. there are now new tents for the refugees and migrants, but many here say the accommodation is now worse than before. >> this is a place for animals to live. we are suffering here. that's why we don't want to live here. this is not a suitable place for living during this season. >> the bosnian authorities have faced harsh criticism in the wake of these images, but in the nearby town of bihac, the mayor, suhret fazlic, places the blame on the bosnian government and the eu.

>> the european union has spent so much money in bosnia in migrant crisis, but bihac has not received any euro. we have been dealing alone with our own money, with our own resources. european union should treat the migrant crisis as a european problem, as a global problem. >> the bosnian public is also growing increasingly wary of these migrants. fierce protests caused this refugee shelter to close its doors a few months ago. the eu wants refugees to move back in here a nightmare scenario, say residents, who have been protesting against it every day. >> they said to us that we are we are racist. we are not rast. the years we have been suffering and helping that people. they don't want to stay in bosnia. they just want to go to the border in europe. and dear europe open the border and take them.

>> but for many of the 8,000 or so refugees and migrants, the chance of being granted asylum in the eu and therefore being allowed to stay, is very low. including for pakistanis like raheel zafar. but that doesn't scare the 25-year-old, who has no desire to stay in bosnia and no intention of returning to pakistan. >> this is not good. what am i doing here? i don't have work. i have nothing here. europe has everything. they have good camps. the food is good. clothes are good. everything. you can work there without a problem. that's why we want to go there, you know. >> as soon as it gets warmer, raheel zafar wants to make a new attempt to cross the border into croatia. but for the time being, he has no choice but to stick it out here, in the mud, rain, and bitter cold.

>> the austrian town of ischgl is mainly known for its extensive skiing slopes in the alps. but last year, it made headlines for becoming one of europe's first coronavirus hotspots. for almost a year now, the town has been on shaky ground. despite the ideal snow this year, tourists are nowhere to be seen. austria's ski villages are in lockdown. that means trouble for bernhard zangerl. his family runs a hotel and a bar, popular among lovers of aprés ski parties. now, he only has his animals to keep him company. >> bernhard zangerl is normally busy running a 5-star hotel, two restaurants, and an après-ski bar his family owns in ischgl. he's never had so much time for his animals. he comes to help out every evening now. the produce from their own farm is usually delivered to the hotel and restaurants, but

they're still closed. and without any tourists, the farm work just isn't worth it, says bernhard. >> the basic question is whether or not we'll have visitors, because everything depends on them. we're worried and hope we can get everything up and running as soon as possible. >> the whole town is reliant on tourists from germany, belgium, and the netherlands. it has 1,600 residents and 12,000 beds. the village looks like it's ready and poised for the moment things pick up again. the silvretta cable car in running test mode. with hotels closed and no tourists around, running the cable car just isn't profitable, says its operator. but if skiers do come, he wants to avoid crowds forming at all costs. only 12 people are allowed into the gondolas instead of 24, and the interior has to be disinfected and aired out regularly. do you air them at the station or keep the windows open? >> they should be open. that's not always possible, of

course, because when the weather is really bad, snow flies in. but yes, the cabins should be ventilated when possible. >> the skiing area in ischgl boasts 170 kilometers of slopes, but as long as the situation remains unclear, they're only preparing a quarter of them. in a twist of irony, the snow conditions this year are the best they've been in a long time. bernard zangerl took over the après-ski bar kitzloch a year ago. it used to be an insider tip for a good party. but after a bartender got infected with covid-19 in march, first kitzloch and then all of ischgl made international headlines. bernhard wants to prove to people that “après-ski” in ischgl won't be a wild, reckless party. this winter there will be fewer guests, social distancing, mandatory reservations, and hygiene regulations. >> you won't be able to move around as freely as in past years. it will be a different kind of

après-ski, so you should see it that way and yet still appreciate being able to go on vacation and enjoy the mountains and skiing. >> the skiing schools and sports shops also have no customers. we'd like to talk to some people, but no one wants to. unlike in the pre-covid days, cameras are no longer welcome in ischgl. tourism director andreas steibl can see why. he says that locals still deeply distrust the media that they were complicit in making ischgl a scapegoat for the spread of coronavirus throughout europe. >> we did not create this pandemic, this virus. it was brought here. so the fact that we were being confronted with it for so long afterwards, at the center of attention, and wrongfully receiving the blame, that hurts, it is painful. >> steibl says ischgl has learned from the mistakes and

it now aims to become a role model as soon as it can. part of the plan is to turn the cultural center into a covid-19 testing center. >> we've already ordered the walls and everything, which we'll receive next week. there will be five stations. >> 5 stations will perform 3,000 official pcr tests a week, enabling guests to get tested here on arrival and shortly before leaving again. the 5-star hotel owned by bernhard zangerl's family is running on a skeleton crew. around a hundred seasonal workers are on call, waiting at home in hungary, germany, and austria. only year-round employees are on site taking the first, cautious reservations mostly from germany. >> for the 13th to the 20th of february? okay. one double room. they book and decide last minute whether to come.

>> >> that means you can't plan ahead? >> i think all hotels in the alps and the rest of europe face this issue. none of them can plan ahead. >> the manager would need a week to hire seasonal workers, and prepare the hotel for guests. for now, he's just waiting he's hopeful but skeptical they will open their doors in january. >> three times i have been convinced we'll start weoming guests first on november 25, then on december 15, and now in january. i hope things will work out this time round. but we will see. >> this winter, ischgl one of austria's most exclusive ski resorts is devoid of tourists. even so, the town is adorned in festive lights. and locals remain hopeful that things will soon improve. >> we now take you to southern italy. over the last decades, the region has witnessed continuous depopulation. a high unemployment rate coupled with a high crime rate have driven many people away from towns like cinquefrondi. the area is the stronghold of

the calabrian mafia, the 'ndrangheta. but locals here want a fresh start and a new image for their town. mayor michele conia has plans that may help attract new residents. he knows that his town desperately needs a facelift but he's also aware of its potential. >> chirping birds and an idyllic moments grove the moment you enter town area who would not like to have a place here? that is what the mayor thought also. he and a person from the town council are having a look around the area where they would like new residents to move in. >> down there, we will put in an elevator that goes straight for the parking lot up and then in that elevator for cultural events, so this part of town we will revive as a post-sickness center for the entire region.

>> tourist highlights are few and far between in this part of e area, sohe town cocil isffering hoes for just one symbolicuro. ey are aaid thattill wil not benough. poverty d lack oeconomic oppounparts of italy.h eeven worse, this is aged -- a stronghold of the calabrian mafia. a journalist has long complained bitterly about organized crime. he knows all too well the scars they have left on the area. >> there are towns that have actually been depopulated by the feuds. towns of 10,000 people where 150 of the men women and children were murdered, all four vendettas.

>> this area has also experienced particular police raids, the last one about five years ago when 55 people from two clans were arrested and caches of weapons seized. they have needed two policemen to protect them ever since. the journalist has received death threats because of his inquiries. he will not be intimidated. >> this country belongs to those who are decent, not those whose sinister and criminal presence is in it. if i left, that would only prove bad people, not the good ones are in control. >> his hopul that e mayor's plan to sell local homes for a symbolic euro will improve the situation.

an independent official has governed the area for six years now, he wants to lend locals fresh optimism. >> today there are problems in making go way out is more import than ever as it applies to not just our area but the entire world. >> once the pandemic is over, the minister polity will hand over the first 13 homes to their new owners. francesca, who runs the project screen thousands of applications sent from interested buyers in northern italy, europe, and even the u.s. unfortunately, we cannot enter any of the homes. the municipality is still waiting for former owners to return their keys. judging by their derelict exteriors and these run down alleys, buyers will need to invest large sums to restore the houses.

>> buyers must meet one criteria, renovate their house within three years according to the architectural standards of this historic town center. >> today it is difficult to picture how quaint this area must have been. still, the mayor is convinced that it has a bright future ahead if everyone works together. >> we want to create something beautiful, including in the hearts of our people, we want to give them hope so they will return, invest money, or at least spend their holidays here. >> for this to become reality, they must be finally freed from the grip of the powerful mafia group. herwise,t will bhard t breae new fe into is small itian town >> the smell of fresh air has become a rare commodity for many russians, especially those living in the suburbs of big

cities. huge piles of trash are causing a terrible stench in these areas. people living close to the alexinski landfill suffer whenever they step outside or even open window the dumpsite is becoming bigger and bigger, emitting toxic fumes . yulia fedoseyeva feared for the health of her children. so she moved away. but she and others are keeping up the fight against the growing heaps of trash. >> the fumes from the landfill start to stink horrendously. your eyes burn, your throat hurts, and you feel sick. it's as if somebody's pouring water down my throat. it makes me cough, i can hardly breathe. >> they say everything's alright. but emergency services have detected 25 times over the limit. >> it's all because of the dump here. >> by 'here', yulia fedoseyeva means about 500 meters from the

house she was born in. the alexinsky landfill near the village of shapino is one of dozens all around the megacity of moscow. it's 32 hectares in area or about 45 soccer pitches. only a few years ago, the pit was some thirty meters deep, say local residents. now, it's a hill rising about twenty meters high. and it keeps getting bigger, as do the population's health problems. yulia fedoseyeva says that, some days, it stank so unbearably she couldn't open her apartment windows. her children, eight-year-old ilya and seven-year-old yaroslava started feeling ill more often. the point came when yulia couldn't take it any more. she moved away from her home village shchapovo seven kilometers to the town of klin. >> the little ones always had something wrong with them. one day, the pediatrician told me their lungs were making

rattling noises. i did not have to think about it, i started looking for an apartment here in klin for us. later, after the move, we went back to the same doctor, and, oh, what a miracle, the noises in their lungs were gone! how come? very simple, we had moved away from the landfill. >> the fedoseyevs' case was no isolated one. waste disposal is one of russia's most pressing issues. greenpeace figures show less than four percent of waste being processed and only 2% going to incineration plants. the rest goes straight into dumps. ironically, the country with the largest land area on earth can't find enough space for the estimated 70 million tons of waste its population produces annually. moscow's landfills, in particular, are ticking time bombs. many of them fail to meet the official safety standards, contaminating soil, ground water and air.

over and over, local residents have protested as here in arkhangelsk. but rarely have they seen any results. yulia fedoseyeva has joined the effort for clean air in her home region. she and her fellow activists pooled their funds and bought a gas analyzer that measures radioactivity, chlorine, hydrogen sulfides, ammonia and other pollutants. >> we use these data to compile what we call a map of the stench for the whole area and then decide if we can go outside with the kids, or not. >> their results are alarming. the activists report them to the environmental agency regularly. in 2017, the state emergency services finally had to react and measured 25 times the maximum allowed for hydrogen sulfides. activists took the matter to court but with no success. e landfill managers and the city

of klin but received no response. and so, yulia fedoseyeva has to consult her detector before she takes her children outside. >> we analyzed the air today. right now, it's looking good, so we can go visit grandma in shchapovo. >> yulia fedoseyeva's 67-year-old mother, valentina agapova, still lives in their home village. >> ilya, come and have some tea and sausage! >> her grandchildren like to come and visit, even if only briefly. her house stands perilously close to the landfill, but she's not going to move away now. >> where would i go? who could i sell my house to, with all that stench out there? they're not exactly lining up! and how could i live in the city? i only get a pension of about 190 euros. and i'd have to pay 130 euros to rent a one-room apartment.

>> they visit with grandma for a couple of hours. yulia fedoseyeva shows her kids her old property quickly, before the wind turns, and the smell is unbearable again. all her efforts to have something done about it have been for nothing. >> i don't know how long we can keep on fighting the system. we're too few, and we're starting to feel helpless and desperate. >> the mountain of garbage keeps on growing. and there are even plans to expand the alexinsky landfill. >> brexit has officially ppened . the brits have said goodbye to expandthe european union.fill. but that doesn't mean they've left all their problems behind. one brexit-related issue is the desire of many people in scotland to break away from the uk and rejoin the eu. of course the british government doesn't want to see this happen. our reporter met two men who uncovered a long-forgotten monument that symbolizes

scotland's past and maybe its future. >> like most weekends, keith and david are tending to the upkeep of the world's largest, three-dimensional map of scotland. keith discovered the overgrown concrete map over 25 years ago. first, he wasn't quite sure what he'd stumbled across, but he thought he recognized the shape of a scottish peninsula. >> ten minutes later i had walked north, discovered ben lomondwalked across rannoch moor, climbed over ben nevis and arrived at the north coast of scotland at the cape wrath lighthouse peninsula, realizing that this was an astonishing relief model. >> it's the brainchild of jan tomasik, a polish world war 2 veteran, who displayed it in his hotel gardens near peebles, scotland. he created the great polish map of scotland to express his gratitude and love towards his new home country. in 2018, keith and david's

charity finished restoring the relief model to its former glory. back then, great britain was stila member of the european union, with scotland and poland part of the same alliance. keith from england is rather an eu skeptic, and david from scotland is rather pro eu. >> so this is where david and i diverge. i think it is a super romantic idea that experience has shown to be totally -- >> i am not going to accuse keith of having narrowness of mind or anything like that but i think, shall we say, although we're on one island, i think somehow, my impression is, that english people are more insular. >> in 2016, two thirds of scottish voters rejected brexit. great britain's decision to leave the eu has divided the country. today, more and more scots think scotland would benefit from splitting off from great

britain. but david, a scotsman himself, thinks scottish independence is impossible. for geological reasons, if nothing else. >> and at one stage there would have been a sea scotland and england. when scotland moved on to england, england went underneath and then volcanoes came up in a line. and so we're sort of stapled, if you like, to england. it's rather difficult to get away from them. >> brexit has shown just how complicated leaving a political union can be. many scots, however, are undeterred by this, and a growing segment of the population wants out. >> we'll keep you updated on developments from scotland and other parts of europe right here on our show and on our website. and you can also find me on twitter. thanks for watching. see you next time.

♪

02/05/21 02/05/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: this war has to end. and to underscore our commitment, we are ending all american support for offensive operations in the war in yemen, including relevant arms sales. amy: president biden pledges to end u.s. support for the saudi-led war on yemen, describing it as a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.