Title: UNHCR: Looking for Safe Shores

UNHCR

Title: UNHCR: Looking for Safe Shores

File: 2014_12_10_looking_for_safe_shores

Production: Edith Champagne/Don Murray/Wendy Tiba

Air Date: December 10,2014

Shoot Date: See script

Sound: Nat/English/Arabic/Rohingya/ Tamalese

Format: 16:9

Dureation: 5:22

VISUALS: FACES MONTAGE

Faces of flight, faces of hope.

They escape by sea, in ever growing numbers.

Routes of hope shadowed by danger…and death.

2014 has been a record year for movements by sea …the highest numbers coming from Mediterranean crossings….more than three times as many as in all of last year.

(MAP: From Libya and Egypt to Southern Europe….Turkey to Greece…)

This year alone, almost 200,000 crossings …..and over 3000 deaths.

Survival is a blessing, but often accompanied by bitter memories.

CLIP: Thayer, Syrian Refugee (Arabic)

“When I got out of the water I saw people screaming, crying, corpses above the water, including children. On the boat was a pregnant woman with a son. They both died and the corpse of the son was floating on the water.”

CLIP: Thamer Syrian Refugee (Arabic)

“Every time I try to sleep I see what I saw in the water, what happened to me, the faces of dead children. People drowning.. people screaming....asking for help, the cries.”

Thousands of others were rescued by the Italian navy Mare Nostrum programme. But that search and rescue mission is ending.

Desperate people take terrifying risks for the slimmest chance to reach safer lands.

This harrowing sea journey was recorded by young Afghans - asylum seekers trying to cross the Indian Ocean to Australia.

They survived but the boat turned back.

The routes can vary….and change…

(MAP:Thousands have fled from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand

and Malaysia – from Sri Lanka to Australia - 53,000 departures in

2014...with 540 drowned or missing at sea.)

2014: 53,000 departures, 540 drowned or missing.

Abdullah left Rakhine state, Myanmar on a smuggler’s boat.

CLIP: Abdullah (Rohingya)

“When I saw people dying day by day, I prayed to Allah to save my life to reach Thailand safely.”

He survived only to be taken to a smugglers’ camp, beaten and forced to work.

He escaped, alive… but scarred.

For Abdullah and many others, escape becomes a descent into terror.

Fourteen year old, Saransika fled Sri Lanka with her mother and her

younger brother and sister....two younger siblings. Crossing the Bay of

Bengal, the smuggler’s boat broke apart.

CLIP: Saransika (Tamalese)

When I jumped into the water, mother came down searching (for me). She didn’t see me, but I saw her. That was the last (time).

Saransika fought to live.

CLIP: Saransika (Tamalese)

I don’t know how to swim. There was a bag, I was holding on to a bagand there was an elderly person, he was the one who saved me.

A day later she was rescued. But her mother, brother and sister drowned. And now hopes of being reunited with her father in Australia have been dashed.

The law of sea requires that passing ships offer help to those in distress. It’s a requirement increasingly ignored.

And search and rescue operations are stretched.

(Map: Djibouti and Puntland to Yemen)

In the Horn of Africa, since 2011 thousands have crossed toYemen from Djibouti and Puntland.

Tragically, in the last two months alone over 150 have died.

But still they come.

And across the world…in the Caribbean thousandsflee poverty and hope for asylum.

(MAP: Cuba to the Bahamas, Haitito the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos…and Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico)

They cross from Cuba to the Bahamas, from Haiti to the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, from the Dominican Republic to PuertoRico.

Since January 2013, 100 dead, 79 missing.

Countries and communities showed what could be done to save, and identify refugees and asylum-seekers.

More, not less, protection must be offered.

More, not less, international and regional cooperation is needed.

And across the world more is necessary to fight human trafficking and people smuggling.

VISUALS: NAMES OF THE DEAD

Dreams drowned, leaving only names. They died at sea. Many more have no names, no graves. Lost completely. Before hundreds, thousands more names are added to this sad list – action,URGENT ACTION, is needed.

Shot List

00:00:00-00:17:00 Graphics

00:17:00 – 00:22:00 WS ocean waves2014-03-20, aboard Italian Navy Ship helicopter, Mediterranean Sea)

00:22:00 – 00:25:00 INT helicopter cockpit banking (2014-02-07, Augusta – Sicily, Italy)

00:25:00 – 00:30:00 MCU Man with binoculars looking out to seastarboard (2014-03-20, aboard Italian Navy Ship, Mediterranean Sea)

00:30:00 – 00:34:00 WS two zodiacs and fishing vessel (2014-02-07, Augusta – Sicily, Italy)

00:34:00 – 00:45:00 Graphic: map of Mediterranean sea with asylum routes.

00:47:00 – 00:52:00 WS from naval boat of refugees boarding ship

00:52:00 – 01:05:00 Various shots of landing craft and refugees at sea

01:05:00 – 01:09:00 WS man on stretcherstarboard (2014-03-20, aboard Italian Navy Ship, Mediterranean Sea)

01:09:00 – 01:12:00 INT MCU Adult and infant aboard shipstarboard (2014-03-20, aboard Italian Navy Ship, Mediterranean Sea)

01:12:00 – 01:23:00 MS Thayer (Syrian Refugee) looking pensive. June 23/24, 2014 Italy, Trapani (Sicily)

CLIP: Thayer, Syrian Refugee (Arabic)

“When I got out of the water I saw people screaming, crying, corpses above the water, including children. On the boat was a pregnant woman with a son. They both died and the corpse of the son was floating on the water.”

CLIP: Thamer Syrian Refugee (Arabic)

“Every time I try to sleep I see what I saw in the water, what happened to me, the faces of dead children. People drowning.. people screaming....asking for help, the cries.”

01:23:00 – 01:32:00 MCU Thamer (Syrian refugee) Looking out to seaJune 23/24, 2014 Italy, Trapani (Sicily)

01:32:00 – 01:41:00 WS Two men sitting on rocks with ruin in background

01:41:00 - 01:53:00 Various shots of ships in port(2014-10-29, Catania, Italy)

01:53:00 – 02:11:00 Various shots aboard refugee ship( On Route to Ausrtalia) ) Afghan refugees.

02:11:00 – 02:24:00 Map of Asian sea routes

02:24:00 - 02:35:00 Various iPhone shots aboard Asian ship ( On Route to Ausrtalia) Afghan refugees.

02:35:00 - 02:59:09

CLIP: Abdullah (Rohingya)

“When I saw people dying day by day, I prayed to Allah to save my life to reach Thailand safely.”(Novermber, 2014)

02:59:00 - 03:08:00 High Angle waves (Mediterranean,2014 )

03:08:05 – 03:40:00 CLIP: Saransika (Tamalese) (November,2014)

When I jumped into the water, mother came down searching (for me). She didn’t see me, but I saw her. That was the last (time).

03:40:00 –03:55:00 Various shots of refugees on ship

03:55:00 - 04:04:00 Graphic Africa Map

04:04:00 – 04:12:00 Various shots African refugees recuperating on shore (Yemen, 2011)

04:12:00 – 04:27:00 Map of refugee movement in the Caribbean

04:27:00 – 05:20:00 Various shots of refugees on European ship(2014-03-20, aboard Italian Navy Ship, Mediterranean Sea)