Can you smash the gangs to stop the boats?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keir Starmer has said Labour will “smash the gangs” to stop the small boats carrying migrants across the Channel, so Nick joins Amol from the busiest border crossing in Europe to discuss whether that’s really possible.
They hear from Syrian men living in a Bulgarian refugee camp and meet a sniffer dog who can detect rubber boats being taken across the border. Plus, they answer your questions about the issues raised in Nick’s reporting and what it’s like taking Today on the road.
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time we release a new episode, and you won’t miss our extra bonus episodes either.
The Today Podcast was made by Lewis Vickers with Nadia Gyane and Joe Wilkinson in London and Jade Bogart-Preleur and Oscar Pearson in Bulgaria. The technical producers were Philip Bull and Joe Lawrence. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on. |
| 0:06.9 | Which is where Newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears. |
| 0:14.8 | It does mean we have to put in the hard work, though. |
| 0:17.5 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:21.6 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:25.5 | Hello, it's Amol here in the Today Podcast studio. |
| 0:28.6 | Nick, my distinguished and rather hardworking colleague, Nick Robinson, has just come off air |
| 0:33.9 | on the Today program, which he's been presenting for the past three hours, |
| 0:42.0 | after presenting from the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. |
| 0:44.4 | We'll give him a moment to catch his breath. |
| 0:48.7 | And then he's going to join me to talk about his reporting from one of Europe's frontlines against illegal migration. |
| 0:51.3 | And in this episode, we are going to give you some of the context to the issues that |
| 0:55.8 | he's been exploring we're going to talk about what he's heard from those trying to come to |
| 0:58.8 | Europe and the police who are desperately trying to stop them and we're also going to answer some |
| 1:03.3 | of your questions and I think I can see him in my screen on the by the wonders of modern technology |
| 1:08.3 | in what looks like a giant filing cabinet but is in fact is in fact well the wonders of modern technology in what looks like a giant filing cabinet, but is in fact, |
| 1:11.9 | is in fact, well, the frontier of Nick. Nick, how are you? |
| 1:16.0 | Yes, well, it's not quite the frontier here. It is, in fact, the office of the chief of border police |
| 1:22.3 | at a place called Capitan Andravo, which is something that has been talked about for centuries, this border |
| 1:29.6 | crossing, because it is the border crossing, not just between Turkey and Bulgaria, but if you like, |
| 1:36.1 | between Europe, between the EU and the rest of the wider world, because Turkey borders a whole |
| 1:42.0 | series of countries that matter when you're having conversations about migration, war zones, let's be honest, places like Syria, places like Iraq, places like Iran as well as parts of the old Soviet Union like Georgia, for example, that are beyond an Azerbaijan. And this is the second busiest land crossing in the world. Busiest in |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.