The Compass

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Italy: The Priest and The Mayor Jul 14, 2016

Show notes

It’s become much harder for migrants from Asia and Africa to reach Europe via the Greek route, but the numbers of those reaching Italy have not declined. Those rescued at sea are mostly taken to Sicily, and also to Calabria, the toe of Italy. Calabria is one of Italy’s poorest regions, more used to emigration than immigration, and the newcomers lives vary starkly.

Hashi Mohamed meets a priest, Don Roberto Meduri, who in the near-absence of official support in his area has taken it upon himself to help migrants living in desperate conditions in an abandoned factory and in a tent city. He has looked after “thousands”, he says, getting mattresses from a prison, fixing power cuts at the tent city and guiding the refugees through the processes to get their residence permits and health cards.

Less than an hour’s drive away, in the small town of Gioiosa Ionica, things are very different. Here the local mayor, Salvatore Fuda, has volunteered to take 75 asylum seekers as part of a government scheme that pays the town 35 euros per migrant per day to look after them. The money goes to the town, not the migrants. For Fuda this is a win-win situation: the local community gets a significant economic boost, and the migrants get to live in houses rented for them, get job placements and language classes.

(Photo: Notes given to migrants for use in Gioiosa Ionica)

My Perfect Country: The UN Debate Jul 09, 2016

Show notes

In a radio first, the World Service programme which analyses ground-breaking global policies, is part of a sitting session of the UN’s Economic and Social Council and includes contributions from some of the 58 delegate countries. The programme is introduced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and features contributions from Gerald Abila, a Ugandan lawyer who has introduced a free legal advice scheme through mobiles and social media, KC Mishra who has tackled sanitation issues in India with innovative approaches to toilets and human waste disposal, Monica Araya who has been one of the driving forces behind Costa Rica’s approach to renewable energy, and Hannes Astok who has been pushing the boundaries of the digital state in Estonia. Also joining the discussion is internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox.

Greece: The Warehouse of Souls Jul 07, 2016

Show notes

The Balkan route is closed, the fragile EU-Turkey deal is in effect, the Pope has been and gone, the traffickers are turning their attention to Italy & so is much of the media. But Greece continues to be the epicentre of a slow emergency. In a country in advanced economic meltdown more than 50,000 refugees & migrants, 'people on the move', are stuck. On the islands, the asylum processing "hotspots" funded by the EU are often grim affairs, like the one on Chios made out of repurposed shipping containers. Outside Thessaloniki, in a place where the railroad tracks run into grass, stands an abandoned toilet paper factory: no windows, no light, and tents huddled under the low roof. But, for a desperately stretched Greek government, this is better than the dark anarchy of the recently cleared camp at Idomeni, or the petrol station where children play in the still-working forecourt & the car wash has tents inside.

The deportations back to Turkey of some 8,500 people who came since the deal was done have started (as have the suicide attempts). For the more than 40,000 refugees and migrants who arrived before March 20th and now have no place to go, another long, gruelling story is beginning. The left-wing Syriza government is having to contemplate just how long these refugees will be stuck there. Minister of Migration Yannis Mouzalas knows that the much criticised EU-Turkey deal is the only thing preventing another wave of refugees reaching the shores of Greek islands that are already struggling to cope: "This is not Greece's crisis, this is Europe's crisis." In the second episode of Destination Europe, Maria Margaronis explores the hopes & fears of refugees, islanders & Greek politicians & asks whether Greece is becoming Europe's "warehouse of souls."

Producer: Mark Burman

(Image: A Syrian woman in Greece)

Turkey: The Lost Generation Jun 30, 2016

Show notes

There as many as half a million Syrian refugee children who are not attending school, leaving them open to exploitation in sweatshops and other forms of abuse. Aid workers call them the "lost generation" and warn that unless they return to the classroom, Syria will lack educated people to help rebuild the country when the war eventually ends.

Tim Whewell meets children as young as nine employed up to 14 hours a day in textile sweatshops - and also a Syrian teacher who has helped rescue some of them from sweatshops by opening a special school for refugee children in Istanbul. Increasing educational opportunities for Syrians in Turkey may persuade some of them to give up their ambition of migrating to Europe but huge investment will be needed.

(Photo: Shaza Barakat and pupils)

Europe’s Challenges: The Union in Crisis Jun 03, 2016

Show notes

The European Union is at a critical moment in its history, with Britain preparing to vote on whether to leave. In the third of a three-part series, the BBC’s Europe correspondent Chris Morris examines the multiple crises facing the EU. The economic crisis in the Eurozone is still not solved and an influx of refugees and migrants is threatening the future of Europe’s open internal borders. On top of this now comes the possibility of ‘Brexit’. Chris speaks to politicians and people across Europe and asks whether the EU will survive.

(Photo: Families gather at the barbed wire fence at the Greek-Macedonia border 2016. Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Europe's Challenges: Expanding the Union May 26, 2016

Show notes

The European Union is at critical moment in its history, with Britain preparing to vote on whether to leave. In the second of a three-part series, the BBC’s former Europe Correspondent Allan Little tells the story of how a club that started with just six members opened its doors until the six became 28. We hear how the European Union helped countries to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy – from Spain and Portugal in the South to Poland and Lithuania in the East. The sacred goal of the European Union’s founding fathers was “ever closer union”, but as it has expanded to welcome countries with very different values and histories, is that goal still desirable or even possible?

Some of the interviews for this series were recorded ten years ago.

(Photo: Flags of the European Union member states stand inside the Council of the EU's Lex building. Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Europe’s Challenges: The Road to Rome May 19, 2016

Show notes

The European Union emerged in the 1950s from a vision of a bright future for a war-ravaged continent – free from conflict, with nations living in harmony, their citizens free to trade and travel without restriction. In the first programme of a three-part series, former BBC Europe correspondent Allan Little hears first-hand from the negotiators who drew up the project’s founding document, the Treaty of Rome, with its key goal of an “ever-closer union”.

The interviews for this series were recorded ten years ago and many of the interviewees have since died.

(Photo: Foreign Ministers of France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany and Italy signing two treaties establishing the European Common Market and the atomic energy community at Campidoglio, Rome, 25 March1957. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Shakespeare in the World - South Africa May 12, 2016

Show notes

If we think of William Shakespeare as exclusively English, we should think again. People around the world have adopted his work and made it something that speaks to their own culture. Writer and academic Nadia Davids takes us to Cape Town and Johannesburg to hear how Shakespeare has played an important role in the politics of a troubled country, and how he still matters in post-Apartheid South Africa.

(Photo: A man carries a volume of Shakespeare's complete works. Credit: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

Shakespeare in the World - India May 05, 2016

Show notes

Nikki Bedi explores how India has taken the works of an Englishman brought to them by British colonists in the 18th Century and adapted them for modern audiences everywhere. From the Bollywood screen to storytellers in remote villages, Nikki looks at how people are using Shakespeare’s stories of love, power and revenge to speak to the concerns of contemporary India.

Shakespeare and the American Dream - Part Two Apr 28, 2016

Show notes

Robert McCrum travels to the United States in search of Shakespeare and the American Dream and hears how he became part of the very fabric of early American life soon after the colonists arrived in New England and has remained an important cultural reference point for Americans.

Robert talks to composer Stephen Sondheim and actor Alec Baldwin along the way. As author James Shapiro puts it: “Americans use Shakespeare to talk about the things that divide us or that we don’t want to talk about”.

Photo: Leonardo Dicaprio is Romeo In the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. (Credit: Getty Images)

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