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Kate Adie introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents and writers.

Kate Adie introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers telling stories from around the world.

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From Our Own Correspondent: America's Border Camps for Children

26/06/2021

America's Border Camps for Children

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, America's Border Camps for Children

Misery at US migrant camps for children; tales from Spain, Afghanistan, Ireland and Turkey

Misery in facilities for migrant minors on the US-Mexico border; a backlash against pardons in Spain; anxiety in Afghanistan; race in Ireland; and a drowned town in Turkey.

On the United States Mexico border, the dilemmas of how to treat migrant families arriving without papers are still acute. A BBC investigation has found hundreds of undocumented children were being detained in a camp in the Texan desert that's been ridden with disease, overcrowded, and plagued by a shortage of clean clothes and medical care.  Hilary Andersson has been investigating the conditions inside Fort Bliss, El Paso. 

Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez took a momentous decision this week: to pardon nine Catalan pro-independence leaders who were jailed for their role in a bid to break away from Spain in 2017. The pardons are meant to soothe national tensions over the issue, but as Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid, the reactions to them reflected some deeply-held feelings across the country. 

As Afghanistan’s leaders met Joseph Biden at the White House on Friday the mood in Kabul was edgy. The Taliban are still extending their reach and hold on Afghan territory, gaining new ground each day. For the Afghan media it’s a particularly nervous time after a spate of targeted killings of journalists. During such dangerous days, a recent invitation to the corridors of power in Kabul got Karim Haidari thinking. 

In late December last year a black man was killed by police in Dublin.  George Nkencho was followed home after he assaulted someone in a shop and pulled out a knife. He was shot near his front door. The Irish police are mostly unarmed, and this was the sixth fatal shooting by a member of the force in 22 years. But there are questions over whether race may have been a factor in the incident. Stephanie Hegarty met George Nkencho’s family as they were pushing for an independent inquiry into his death. 

Hasankeyf in southeastern Turkey is one of humanity's oldest urban settlements - inhabited for at least twelve thousand years. Or at least old Hasankeyf was - until it was flooded by the waters built up behind the controversial Ilisu Dam. Some original monuments – its bathhouse and remnants of a 14th-century mosque, as well as over 500 graves - were rescued, but many local people wonder whether too much of its special character has been lost forever. Michelle Jana Chan went to see what remains. 

Producer: Polly Hope

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