hello and welcome to focus on europe. it is wonderful to have you with us. you might think that slavery is a thing of the past. but millions of people around the world are trapped in what is known as modern slavery. from prostitution to bonded labor people continue to be exploited. and in spain, you can find these modern slaves working as domestic help. their rights are not respected. they are often forced to work until late at night. and their accommodation is mostly a tiny room in the basement. internas are what these workers are called in spain.

like in the capital madrid, they live in the same household as their employers like au pairs. often, they are without any papers, without a residence permit. and that makes them even more vulnerable. the spanish government has made stricter laws. but despite that people like delia continue to be abused. she is an interna and has one hell of a job. six days a week, sixteen hours a day. delia's filmed herself at work for us with her cell phone. in this apartment in madrid, spain, she takes care of the household and looks after the children. she sleeps here too. but the 57 -year-old doesn't want to show us her room. it is her only piece of privacy. they put me in a two by three meter basement room. i don't have a window. it's demeaning.

and it's sad to have to live like this. even though you take care of everything in the apartment, round the clock, you do your best, but still end up in a situation like this. they're called internas because they live in the household. they're usually from latin america or the philippines. they do the groceries, mind the children, take care of the elderly - like here in the upscale neighbourhoods of madrid. you do everything, cooking, cleaning, everything. we're on call 24 hours a day. you start six thirty and then finish nine o'clock, in the evening. at this domestic workers association, karla girón is the chairperson, but she's not above doing the cleaning. she too has worked as an interna in the past. now with the association, she supports the workers' rights.

because many don't even get the designated minimum wage for their work: 1080 euros a month. migrants without residency rights are often shamelessly exploited. this is modern slavery. they don't pay you the legal minimum. your rights get trampled on just because you don't have papers. and then when you complain, the employer says: why should i pay you by the book when you don't even have papers? delia often comes by the association. seventeen years ago, she came to spain from paraguay to earn money for her family. her biggest burden is the separation from her children. her son was ten at the time, her daughter fifteen. i left my children in paraguay and now i'm here for other people's children. it hurts. i've missed a lot of things: my daughter's wedding, the birth

of my four grandchildren, my father's death, all the things that keep a family together. delia gets help from the association psychologist. ana camargo thinks the extreme living situation of the internas is dangerous: there can be frustration and depression, even the loss of one's own identity. the boundaries between your private and working life are blurred. your privacy and personal development are determined by others. spanish authorities want to end the precarious situation; they've imposed contracts with minimum rest periods. a new decree now grants unemployment benefits to domestic workers. but in reality, domestic work is hard to monitor.

the employer doesn't have to let the inspectors into their home during an inspection. they can invoke their right to domestic privacy. ángela tells us she's had domestic workers all her life, but they're now employed under contract and covered by social security. she thinks living as an interna has its advantages, too. after all, she says, they have few expenses. they don't have to pay for rent, food, electricity, water, washing machine. everything is free because they live in the house. they can save that money for themselves and their families. family was the reason delia left paraguay to work as an interna. seventeen years later, her own children are practically strangers to her.

i wouldn't do it again. i'd stay in my country and somehow take care of my children there. but at least i'd be with them. today i have no hope of winning back their love. delia is still proud that her work has enabled her children to get an education. but it's been a high price to pay. ukraine's counteroffensive has been going on for over two months now. reconquering territories occupied by russia is a difficult task - particularly around the city of bakhmut. the progress that the ukrainian troops are making against the russians is partly down to weapons that are small enough to hold in one hand, drones. they've become a major element on the battlefield in ukraine's war. never before have so many drones been used in a conflict zone. it's a new age weapon that is changing the face of warfare as

we know it. this close to the front, soldiers risk their lives with every second. they have to work fast before they're spotted. it looks like a plastic shark, but it's the most important weapon this unit in eastern ukraine has: a cutting-edge reconnaissance drone. they can fly the drone for a good 40 kilometers - deep behind russian lines. the pilot and co-pilot stay hidden in a converted delivery van. 'we'll have to pull it up over there', says yuri. he's the co-pilot. once they've located some targets, they pass on the coordinates. there are some gun positions there, but now we will confirm and find the exact locations of the gun positions. so, that's the mission. the data for the flights are top secret. we're not even allowed to film the monitors. that's how sensitive the reconnaissance mission is - and how vital, says commanding officer oleksandr.

drones are important because about 90 percent of the enemy's losses come from artillery fire. and how effective that is primarily depends on reconnaisance. we later learn just how successful the drone flight was. the pilots have to evade russian air defenses and, almost even more often, they say, fire from their own wary troops. the war of drones has reached an entirely new level in ukraine. nowadays, remote-controlled drones bring death, fear and destruction to thousands - and not just on the battlefield. ukrainian cities have been systematically targeted by kamikaze drones. moscow has reported drone attacks, as well. it's become a war of weapons technicians, both civilian and military. here, in a windowless basement workshop in kyiv, volunteers assemble basic little attack drones.

many of them will fly only once: the kamikaze-drones. they attach green detonators to regular civilian drones made in china. anton, the supervisor here, shows how the detonators are made, using automatic 3 d printers. this is the most time-consuming part. printing can take up to 20 hours - maybe even more. it depends on the parts that you print. but now, we can see the parts for the droppers. the printers were donated, but they bought most of the materials themselves, says anton. it makes financial sense: a 400 -euro drone can damage a tank costing millions. but many of the drones only last a few days at the front, so demand is enormous. nobody knows exactly what the daily losses are. but anton says without the volunteers they wouldn't keep up. government should be more involved in this - they should pay more attention - should understand why these drones are

important , and we are working with the whole drone community here. they won't say how many attack drones they assemble here per week, except to confirm that it isn't enough. some of the drones are sent to this command position outside bakhmut. livestreams from over 100 aerial vehicles are monitored here - in real time - in the same room where the soldiers sleep. herman supervises the missions. he decides when and where these handmade drones was strike. this is civilian technology, not military. you have to realize that. the simpler electronics make things harder. you can't run into any signal jammers. if someone doesn't understand that, the operation is doomed. in a safe environment, the soldiers demonstrate the kamikaze models. generally, they steer the explosive-laden drones

straight to their targets. for today's exercise, they've attached a dummy grenade to it. they control it with video glasses receiving live images. herman sees the developments in drone warfare as a trend. we have to be changing the technology continuously for it to work. every measure we take is followed by a countermeasure by the other side. action - reaction. and if you don't keep developing, the technology has a very short lifespan. he predicts an arms race between russian and ukrainian engineers for the short term. but in the future, he's sure that drones will be flying more of the missions that his troops are currently risking their lives for. back to the front lines. the soldiers say everything went well for the reconnaissance flight. later, they sent us this video, saying it showed how they located hidden russian artillery.

the attacks were to follow soon after. can future wars conceivably be fought without drones? i don't think so. should there be more wars - god forbid - i think they'll only be waged using drones. in ukraine, drones are now a reality - an anonymous, remote-controlled, deadly reality. it is a highly controversial issue - both politically and socially: how to dispose of nuclear waste? where can it be stored safely? germany has already phased out nuclear power but does not have any answer to these questions yet. other countries in europe still rely heavily on nuclear energy finland being one of them. but this scandinavian country has managed to do something that no other country in the world has. it is building the world's first permanent nuclear waste site. the repository is almost ready off the west coast on the island of ol-ki-luo-to.

there are a quarter of a million tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste sitting around across the globe. in some cases, leeching toxins into the environment. but not in finland. the finns - as the only country in the world - are building a permanent storage site for high-level nuclear waste just three hours away from the capital helsinki, in the municipality called eurajoki, which already houses a nuclear power plant. the site is called onkalo - or cave in finnish. the ride takes us all the way down to 430 meters underground. antti joutsen is the head geologist at the company responsible for the repository. this area was chosen because of the special conditions. the age of the rock is almost two billion years. it's rather unfractured. rather dry. we don't have a lot of groundwater movements in here.

the finns are way ahead of most nations. also because according to one survey, almost 70 per cent of finns have a positive attitude towards nuclear power. no i'm not afraid that anything bad will happen. because they are very careful about safety. i think it's good. we get more taxes. and money from that. maybe some new people. for the business side it's good. eurajoki receives around 20 million euros in property taxes every year from tvo, the company who owns the nuclear power plant and the waste disposal site. the municipal center with only a couple of thousand inhabitants has its own health care center, nursing home, library and multiple sports facilities - and is building another sports center for 9 million euros. vesa jalonen is a former teacher and has been living here for

over 50 years. people in finland, they think that because engineers have investigated that. for example our regulator stuk, we trust it very very much. actually we can say that we are very proud of that. that can be surprising to some. because high-level nuclear waste is no regular waste. it consists mostly of spent nuclear fuel rods and can stay radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. to prevent radioactivity from the rods from leaking in the meantime, it needs to be encased properly. in finland, the spent fuel rods are sealed into 5 -centimeter-thick and around 5 -meter-high copper canisters. which are then put into holes over 400 meters underground. the hole is filled up with bentonite clay, which can absorb ground water that might seep in and corrode the copper canister.

finally the tunnel is back-filled with the same material and sealed with a 6 -meter-thick concrete slab. this is our first real deposition tunnel. it's 350 meters long. we can fit around 40 capsules in this tunnel. there is debate over how fast the copper canisters could corrode. but the finnish nuclear safety authority says that it won't pose a significant risk - and that the canister is just one protective layer of many. we have designed the concept to be so robust that if we have carried out some sort of false estimation or underestimated some of the processes that might take place in the repository, we have the safety margins in our concept.

the storage site will be gradually expanded and filled for about a century - to a total length of 50 kilometers. but then it will be sealed permanently, not to be touched again. other europeans have protested the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste in their communities. why not here? there has been a mutual consensus that we need to take care of the waste. not to leave them to future generations. that may be why the finns will soon be the first in the world to permanently store high-level nuclear waste. living in european capitals doesn't come cheap. the high cost of living makes it very difficult for families to survive. just imagine you set off for work in the morning and don't come across any children going to school. that's almost happening in the london borough of camden. london is one of europe's most expensive cities and has staggeringly high rent prices.

as a result children are disappearing from the city. school's out! but something's missing. instead of the end of day hubbub, this london primary school is unusually quiet. at full capacity, there would be as many as 300 students here. but today, there are as few as two. lisa steinsson's son diaz went here until recently. but before christmas, news broke that the school would be closed down in summer. the reason they gave for the school closing was intake. that there were not enough children applying, there weren't enough children coming into the school. within weeks there were hardly any children left, they were all going to other schools. finding diaz a new school was far from easy. the family live in camden, in central london - where four

schools closed their gates in quick succession - for lack of children. you know, he questioned a lot: why is my friend not here at school anymore? and what school am i going to go to? you know that sort of worry. and for his age, he shouldn't be worrying about anything. luckily, diaz was able to get a place in another school nearby. it's lunchtime - but there's an eerie silence on the playground. not a single child to be seen. it's a new phenomenon says andrew dyer, a long-term camden resident. he was a teacher here before starting a job at the union. his neighborhood has changed almost beyond recognition. the working-class communities, the large families, you would often see them around. it felt like a place you'd want to bring up children.

you see that less and less. and you don't have to look far to understand why. housing in london is exorbitantly expensive. a house will set you back almost two million euros, a three-room apartment 690,000 . families just can't afford to live here anymore. the rental market is just as vicious. a four-room property can easily cost up to four thousand euros a month. quite soon i worry that camden is going to turn into a borough where rich people and elderly people live, and it's going to lose its heart. and it's not just camden - but all of london. new buildings are appearing everywhere, but very few cater to families. this site will feature small apartments - aimed at wealthy couples. alice brownfield is an architect. she's worried about recent developments and how they'll

change the makeup of the city. i think the most important thing is that we should be creating spaces and buildings that help forge mixed and diverse communities, and we need a good balance of everything. in hackney, east london, parents and children stage a protest at the local town hall. their school, too, is facing closure - which would force many families out of the area. without a school, they can't stay. we would probably have to move out of the borough, which would be incredibly sad. we've been here for over 15 years, we love it, our children love it. the closure is almost unavoidable. but the residents won't give up without a fight. i don't know what a city looks like if you don't have children in it, if you don't have families in it. i can't really imagine what sort of a place that would be, but i think it would be kind of a sad place, rather a soulless place. a soulless london.

hardly a dream scenario for the mayor and his deputy for housing. but that might be where it's heading. that's definitely a problem. it's why we desperately need more funding from the government to enable us to build affordable housing. we're doing everything we can at city hall with the powers and the funding that the mayor's got, but it's simply not enough. and more funding is unlikely. so until things change, london's empty playgrounds will remain a dire metaphor for the future of the city. much of naples is controlled by the camorra, a criminal organization active in southern italy. it is among the most notorious mafias in the country and has been involved in the drug trafficking business for decades. these criminal gangs have been very active in the district of san giovanni e teduccio. but things seem to be changing now. technology is helping in places where you might not necessarily have expected it.

in areas where poverty has prevailed for years, students now work on developing apps. far from mount vesuvius is the district of san giovanni a teduccio. for a long time, it was considered a rough area of naples. the things have gotten better in recent years. things have also gotten better for ilaria saulino. she's a student at the city's new university campus. she's seen how the neighborhood has progressed over time. what's changed most in san giovanni is that the residents have got used to the students. a lot of small stores and businesses have opened up round the university, making life easier for us. the neighborhood's come alive thanks to all the young people. this naples district has long been a place of poverty, unemployment, and strong mafia presence. but what was once a derelict industrial site is now a cutting

edge university campus. and it was here that the university federico ii hosted the first apple developer academy program with the help of the eu. now students from the world-over learn how to develop software for apps and how to found a start-up here. ilaria is developing an app to track dreams at night. we want to help people record their dreams. overnight, the app collects data. the next day, they can analyze their dreams and find out how to sleep better. fellow student giulia believes that apps can help bring about social change - that's for san giovanni a teduccio, too. a successful app is an app that solves problems.

in naples, there are six arrests a day for violence against women. giulia wants to help these victims of domestic violence. she knows that it's often financial dependence that prevents victims separating from their violent partners. we want to create an app that can make a positive change. our goal is to have an app that can help women become more financially independent through a better management of their financial resources. meanwhile, several tech companies have set up shop in the neighborhood and the university of naples is already building an extension to the campus. the san giovanni a teduccio revival continues. that's it for this edition of focus on europe.

we'll be back next week. until then, goodbye and take care.

>> this is dw news, live berlin. within seven to people died in the building fire. officials say at least 12 children are among the dead. the building was used. a leader of the problem much in the u.s. 17 years in prison.