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From Our Own Correspondent

Still There: The Migrants Trapped in Calais Limbo

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many migrants still set off by boat from Calais each week, in the hope of reaching Britain. The French authorities insist they are trying to deter people from coming to Calais, by making conditions there tougher. Horatio Clare says they are removing tents, mattresses, and even the blankets people sleep under. More than 150 thousand Russians with learning disabilities live in institutions which have been criticised as inhumane or cruel. The aim, Lucy Ash says, is to keep out of sight people who are considered a social embarrassment. She has been meeting activists in Moscow, trying to provide alternative ways for them to be cared for and supported. LSD and magic mushrooms were once supposed to be a means to tap into an alternative universe, to “Break on Through to the Other Side,” as the Doors singer, Jim Morrison put it. Nowadays, conventional medical establishments are exploring how various psychedelics can be used to treat people with mental health problems. Stephanie Theobald went to a convention in the US state of Nevada, which proclaimed a new psychedelic renaissance. Stephen Moss has travelled the world as a producer for the BBC’s Natural History Unit, seeing plenty of unusual wildlife along the way. But he had a particular, yet unfulfilled ambition to see the bird species known as the “Resplendent Quetzal.” In the end, he had to travel to Costa Rica to catch sight of it. It is sometimes hard to believe that border requirements such as visas and passports are a relatively modern development, passports themselves only being standardised in the 1920s. So how has all this affected those who seek to roam around the continent - for pleasure, for exploration, to experience other cultures? Nick Hunt has made many such journeys, and reflects now on how they have changed, and how they have stayed the same.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:05.4

In Russia, those with learning disabilities are sent to residential homes so harsh, or

0:11.0

correspondents says they're often compared to the gulags.

0:14.8

She meets those trying to change this.

0:17.4

There's a rather innovative approach to mental health on show in Las Vegas, psychedelic

0:23.4

drugs no longer seen as radical or mind-bending, but instead part of the wellness industry.

0:30.9

How far would you travel to see a rare species of bird?

0:34.5

We hear from an enthusiast whose journey took him all the way to Central America, and

0:39.5

another traveler walks from one end of Europe to the other.

0:43.4

What's changed?

0:44.5

What remains?

0:46.2

First we turn to other people who've crossed Europe, and often crossed other continents too,

0:51.4

migrants, hundreds every day who set off by boat from Calais in the hope of reaching

0:56.6

Britain.

0:58.0

Being travelled originally from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, some of refugees fleeing

1:03.4

war or oppression, others hope for a better future in the UK.

1:08.1

But the frequently rough conditions of the English Channel make no distinction of purpose

1:12.9

on one day alone last year, 27 drowned, thousands more die or root trying to reach Calais.

1:21.3

British politicians have blamed France for allowing them to depart from its shores.

1:26.5

The French government said this month it would try to stop them from entering Europe in

1:30.4

the first place, and the French authorities insist they are trying to deter people from

1:35.5

coming to Calais itself.

...

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