The Burning: The Untold Story of Africa's Refugee Crisis

(footsteps thumping) (somber music) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Mari continue speaking in foreign language) (Mari continue speaking in foreign language) (Mari continue speaking in foreign language) (spirited percussive music) - [Colonel] They could kill you.

They could say, "This woman has to disappear."

In Africa, having somebody killed is nothing.

It's small.

(gun firing) It's simple.

Nobody wants this released.

Isabella, if you're dead, you are silenced.

Have a plan for how you are going to get out alive.

(spirited percussive music) (solemn African music) - [Isabella] 12.5 million enslaved people, the majority of them taken from West and Central Africa, from regions that became modern day Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Just as the slave trade stole the continent's people, the colonial period stripped Africa's natural resources, leaving it fractured into European-designed states that pitted rival ethnic groups against one another.

This all but guaranteed a future of warfare.

Many are now traveling reverse colonial routes in search of a safe place to call home.

More than 45 million people in all.

(solemn African music continues) (pensive music) A decade ago, the subjects of this film and I began working together undercover to show the world that behind every statistic is a name, a face, and a story.

I live between the US and Africa, where I work as an anthropologist, writer and filmmaker.

I've had the privilege of traveling over 9,000 miles with those risking everything to reach safety in Europe.

Together, we've uncovered a system built to trap asylum seekers under brutal conditions.

Across North Africa, foreign media has been banned, leaving the world blind to the atrocities on the ground.

This is the story of one family fleeing Mali, one group of brothers trapped behind Europe's border in Morocco and one father desperate to reunite with his daughter.

Of the 10 whose journeys I follow, only one will be granted refugee status.

Seven will be left without a safe country to call home and two will be killed on their journeys to safer shores.

It's time for their voices to be heard.

(bright music) (birds chirping) (children laughing) (kids speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (kids speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (broom scratching) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Kia continue speaking in foreign language) (Jah speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (African music) (DJ speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (African music) (pensive music) (DJ speaking in foreign language) (mallet hammering) (DJ speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Jah left home with the hope of reaching Europe and gaining refugee status there.

Once safe, he'd be able to fly his wife and son to him, sparing them the deadly journey across Africa.

But Kia had no idea how long she might be left waiting.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (kid coughs) (Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] But extreme poverty is only one driver for migration.

Families like Kia's are also fleeing the ongoing war that threatens their security every day.

(gun fires) (ominous music) (explosion booming) (reporter speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (footsteps thumping) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mo and Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (Kia laughs) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] With her few belongings and young son in hand, Kia prepared to leave home for the first time and travel nearly 3,000 miles on foot and hidden inside of smuggler's trucks.

Traversing vast deserts and active war zones, surviving the journey alone is a miracle.

(motor engine revving) (DJ speaking in foreign language) (crowd chattering) (pensive music) (DJ speaking in foreign language) (bright music) - [Isabella] While Kia's journey is singular, it represents the journeys that millions are forced to take every year.

And it ends just miles from the Mediterranean Sea, the single most trafficked border in our world today.

(African music) (gentle bright music) (seagulls squawking) (crowd chattering) (Mohammed speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] The EU has invested billions in the countries at its southern borders.

In exchange for these payments, Morocco, Algeria and Libya are expected to act as permanent holding cells for all Africans seeking asylum.

(Mohammed speaking in foreign language) (pensive music) (Mohammed continue speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Deep in the forest, hundreds of small camps form along lines of shared history.

In this camp, just over 100 young men from Guinea formed a brotherhood, united by their experience of losing their parents to war and each being the eldest son and their family.

I follow the journeys of four of them.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (birds chirping) (serene music) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Ibrahim] As for me, I'm coming from Sierra Leone.

I have lost my parents in the wars of 1998.

Up to this point in time now, I am alone.

I can't remember all the things because I was a little boy of six years old.

(brooding music) (gun fires) What I can remember I was seeing a lot of dead bodies.

(gun fires) They killed my dad.

(woman screams) That's the last time that I saw my mom.

(birds chirping) We are trying to build our little bit of family here.

(Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) - [Ibrahim] When I arrived, they said, "This is the chief of the Guinea camp here.

His name is Moneba."

He said, if I can respect the rules and the regulation, I'm welcome.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (crowd chattering) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Life in Moneba's camp is harsh.

I spent more than a year living in the forest with them, and I know that summer brings searing heat and winter brings freezing rains.

Food is scavenged from the trash and clean water supplies are always scarce.

There's one cell phone shared between the brothers for survival, but buying minutes for it and other staples like rice requires begging in the street, and any contact with the public is dangerous.

- [Ibrahim] We stay in the forest, we the Black people.

They dislike to see the Black people in the town.

In the morning, we have to select two people to go in the street to beg for food, for money.

Sometimes you go in the street and start to beg, you will see the cops running behind you, telling you "Leave the street, to leave the street!"

When they capture you, if there's a little bit of pocket money, they will take it before starting flog you.

- [Isabella] Even the children in your brotherhood?

- [Ibrahim] If you are a children, you are not a children, they won't care.

They won't care.

He's trying to destroy your future.

(African music) - [Ibrahim] We have a boy here by the name of Bambino.

He's a little boy, the smallest in the forest, and he's so playful.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Bambino speaking in foreign language) (Bambino continue speaking in foreign language) - [Ibrahim] Before leaving, we have to make a sign here for the others to know there was their brothers here before.

Mamadou is so intelligent.

When we give a question, he's the one who is giving the answer.

I think this is somebody that I should be close to so that I can have a lot of things in my head.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] As the chief, Moneba often turned to Mamadou when there was a difficult decision to make or when he needed help reading and writing.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Bambino speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Bambino speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (fire crackling) (pensive music) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Hrig, the Arabic term for illegal immigration, translates to burning, but this signifies more than a person's decision to destroy their identification papers in hopes of avoiding repatriation.

It signifies their decision to sacrifice themselves for the small chance at survival, because survival means saving those they left behind.

(pensive music) Having attempted many crossings in the past, the brotherhood knew they needed help scaling the three rings of razor-wire that surround Europe.

They scavenged old construction sites for nails that could turn their hands and shoes into climbing tools, and they taught me how to do the same.

- [Ibrahim] It's just like a war.

You know, when a soldier is going for a war, he has to prepare because he's going to fight.

So when we are going to the fence, we have to prepare good because we know we are going to fight so that we can make it up.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) If you don't have the courage, you can't do it.

(suspenseful music) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (suspenseful music) - [Isabella] Human rights law guarantees all of us the right to seek asylum in another country if we're no longer safe in our own.

But before the brotherhood and millions of others like them can apply for asylum, they must first reach Europe.

There are only two ways to do this.

By crossing the rough waters of the Mediterranean sea or scaling rings of razor-wire under constant surveillance by the Guardia Civil.

Everyone in our group was brutally beaten back into Morocco that night and all of my equipment was confiscated by the Spanish Police.

(serene music) (guard speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (Guardia Civil officer speaking in foreign language) (crowd faintly speaking) (Guardia Civil officer speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Mohammed speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] At European borders, Africans are automatically labeled as illegal migrants, denying the realities of war, violence, and persecution that so many of them are fleeing, and stripping them of their basic human right to seek asylum.

(Guardia Civil officer speaking in foreign language) (brooding music) (crowd faintly speaking) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) (explosion booming) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) (Myriame continue speaking in foreign language) (guard speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (guard speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Yes, let's start there with the definition of the UNHCR, how it was founded.

- [UNHCR Chief] The UNHCR was established after the Second World War by the United Nations.

Its mission is to provide international protection to refugees, to people who have lost their national protection.

It is the UNHCR that is on the frontline.

- [Isabella] In Morocco, Myriame conducts asylum interviews for the United Nations.

They're used to determine each applicant's status as a refugee or a migrant.

While refugees are resettled to a safe country, migrants are considered illegal and face immediate imprisonment.

Many of the people Myriame interviews are fleeing the great African War in the DRC where 5.5 million have already been killed.

(Myriame speaking in foreign language) (Phino speaking in foreign language) (Phino continue speaking in foreign language) (explosion booming) (crowd chattering) (Phino continue speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] While the United Nations has long held a respected position in the world and was foundational to our international human rights law, what I witnessed on the ground often ran counter to what I was told in interviews.

- [UNHCR Chief] In this day and age, the protection that is afforded to refugees can be an incentive for people who are not in need of protection, who are economic migrants.

We have nationalities that need international protection, like persons coming from Syria.

And then you have nationalities or persons where you really need to go into the individual story to figure it out.

Sub-Saharan Africans, people from DRC, Mali, and a few other countries that are, you know, troubled by conflict.

Can they go back home or do they have a well-founded fear of violence?

- [Isabella] Despite the United Nations having more than 20,000 peacekeepers on the ground in Mali where the war is rapidly escalating, the UN fails to recognize people fleeing Mali or the Great African War in the DRC as refugees.

Instead, they place the burden on them to prove their cases.

- [UNHCR Chief] One rule is to always give a chance to the person and say,"Well, that doesn't..." "I don't understand" or "That doesn't make sense."

Or "I don't believe you."

Which makes them incredible, and then that's a rejection.

I don't want to go too much into the details, the legal details, but you have gray areas.

Whether it's a child, whether it's someone who has been traumatized, evidence most of the time is only the speech you get.

With Sub-Saharan Africans, there is quite substantial rejection rate.

Over 80%.

- [Isabella] Well over 80%.

In fact, only 12% of applications were approved that year.

In contrast, 80% of people fleeing their homes across the Middle East were granted asylum.

And 100% of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, 6 million people in all, were granted asylum in the EU without any application process.

- [UNHCR Chief] That's what I personally call the mathematics of refugee asylum distribution.

(Myriame speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] After more than a decade of waiting, Phino's asylum claim was finally rejected.

He found work as a cleaner at a small hotel run by a French family.

He sleeps in the basement, and the two euros he earns a day go back to his family in the DRC.

(Phino speaking in foreign language) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) - [UNHCR Chief] Morocco is offering protection.

And what is remarkable is that there is full access to rights.

Refugees have free access to public healthcare, to education.

So their basic rights are guaranteed.

(pensive music) (Phino speaking in foreign language) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) (melancholic music) - [Isabella] It had been two years since I began filming, and more than six months since Kia left her home in Mali.

She survived her journey and was now standing just miles from the Mediterranean Sea, where her husband and daughter nearly drowned.

She was determined to find them.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (prisoners speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] In the quiet moments when her son was sleeping, Kia allowed herself to mourn.

The loss of her husband was another to endure after losing both of her parents at a young age, and now fearing she may lose her son to his untreated illness.

(Kia and son singing in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (brooding music) - [Isabella] Months after Jah was killed in prison, I received a phone call from the forest camp.

A new group of prisoners had been released and made their way north to the mountains around Melilla.

They told me a member of Moneba's brotherhood was looking after a young girl who arrived in the group.

No one knew the girl's name or age or how she ended up in prison alone, but they did know she was from Mali, the same country Kia fled.

Could it possibly be the daughter Kia is searching for?

(Bah speaking in foreign language) - [Mari] Mariam.

- [Bah] Mariam.

(Bah speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] I was overjoyed to learn it was Kia's daughter who'd been released and taken in by the brotherhood.

For months, she'd been cared for by a young man named Jalloh.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (group laughing) - [Isabella] With Myriame's help, Kia traveled to the mountains around Melilla to finally reunite with her daughter.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] After finding Kia's daughter, I was determined to learn what happened to each of the brothers I'd lived with in the camp last year and where I could reunite with them next.

(Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Bah speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] I learned this is exactly what happened to Ibrahim a few weeks before I arrived.

Rather than being repatriated to his home country as international law demands, he was dropped in a desolate strip of desert at the border between Morocco and Algeria.

This has become the standard practice, dropped without food or water, left there to die.

(Bah speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Give me the memory cards.

- [Cameraman] Memory cards here.

- [Isabella] Over the nearly 10 years I spent filming, my small team and I were constantly under attack.

In all, we lost over 50% of the footage we shot to police confiscation.

(bright music) - [Isabella] Months after their reunion, Kia and her children are trapped in Morocco with little hope for a better future, but she tells me at least they are together.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mo speaking in foreign language) (group speaking in foreign language) (knocking on door) (roommate speaking in foreign language) - [Cameraman] Can I turn everything off?

- [Isabella] Leave sound running.

- [Cameraman] We have to hide everything.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (police officer speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (police officer speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (police officer speaking in foreign language) (Kia and police officer speaking in foreign language) (contemplative music) (Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] The same journey across the Mediterranean Sea that would cost Kia over 3,000 euros and quite possibly her life can easily be traveled by others.

With an American passport, I can pay 20 euros and arrive safely in only 30 minutes, almost as easily as I can walk across the border into Morocco's Spanish enclaves.

This is a world in which our human rights are determined by where we are born.

(bright music) Myriame had planned a special day to celebrate Kia and her children being reunited.

It was Mari's first time on the water since the tragedy that ended with her and her father in prison.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (Kia laughs) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (group laughs) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari laughs) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] After a long winter spent together at Myriame's home in Morocco, Kia and Jalloh would be going in opposite directions.

Jalloh decided to give Kia almost all of the money he had left, enough for her and her children to try to return home to Mali.

With the little that remained, he would make one final attempt at escape.

(Jalloh growls) (Mari laughs) (pensive music) - [Isabella] I spoke to the man who controls one of the largest smuggling rings in the region, and he agreed to something that hadn't been done before.

To give me a place on the boat.

But I knew bringing my camera equipment would still be a challenge.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language).

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (group speaking in foreign language) (Myriame speaking in foreign language) (Myriame continue speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Jalloh and Kia speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Before beginning her 3,000-mile journey home to Mali with the same smuggling ring that brought her to Morocco, Kia took her children to the cemetery to say their final goodbyes.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Kia and attendant speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (attendant speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (foreign music) (pensive music) (Jalloh speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] As I'd done many times before, I joined the brotherhood on the night before their crossing.

It's a night of celebration, of farewells, but also of fear about what lies ahead.

This time, Jalloh and I, along with his friend Oury and 24 others, would be boarding an inflatable raft and setting out across the Mediterranean Sea.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (pensive music) - [Isabella] As we were preparing to board, Jalloh and I were arrested by the Moroccan police.

I was taken into custody and he was dropped at the Moroccan-Algerian border just like Ibrahim had been.

Every penny he'd invested, gone in an instant.

But before he was taken, Jalloh handed his hidden camera off to Oury.

He was left praying for his friend's success.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (waves crashing) (group speaking in foreign language) (Oury speaking in foreign language) (group speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] The average person can only survive three days without water, a few more without food.

Harsh weather conditions lower these odds.

Thanks to Oury's courage, he was able to capture what few have seen before, the lowest points of their journey when those around them were dying, and the highest point when help was finally on the way.

After four days stranded at sea, a ship operated by Doctors Without Borders came to the rescue.

Six of the 25 asylum seekers had already died of hypothermia.

The others received immediate medical attention (Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (refugee speaking in foreign language) (pensive music) - [Isabella] In the following months, as I continued filming across North Africa, I was always on the lookout for my friends from the brotherhood.

I knew if they were lucky enough to escape the desert, they would end up in detention.

The United Nations officially recognizes a massive number of asylum seekers who are trapped across North Africa, in detention centers that are funded by the EU.

But leading human rights groups estimate there could be 10 times these official numbers.

In just a matter of months working undercover in Libya's capital city, I visited 27 detention centers that are not a part of the UN's official count.

Each one of them detained several thousand asylum seekers.

Their only hope of escape is a growing slave trade in the region.

It was at one of the black sites where asylum seekers are being bought and sold that I finally found Ibrahim.

- [Ibrahim] It's really dangerous in Algeria here.

When you arrive, straight away you'll be seeing the secret police.

When they see that you're an immigrant, they will capture you and send you to the post, and they'll be locking you into a prison.

(prisoners speaking in foreign language) Here, they're in the desert.

They're caught by the cops in the desert.

Three of them is sitting.

They're asking each one of them to slap the other one.

(man screaming) - [Ibrahim] The cops, they will be beating you.

Maybe they will find you dead.

They said, "Okay, if you want to leave, you should pay this amount of money."

My two friends, each one of them called their parents.

But as for me, I don't have nobody to call behind.

I have to work for them as a slave.

- [Isabella] Ibrahim was forced to work even as the conditions killed those around him.

Stopping here to dig mass graves for the bodies of other asylum seekers that were piling up in the back of his master's truck.

- [Ibrahim] Why you are treating somebody like that?

It's because his color is Black, you are White?

- [Isabella] On our way to an interview at another black site, we saw lights flashing.

(siren wailing) Ibrahim, keep walking.

The memory of Ibrahim's last brutal experience with the Algerian police was still raw.

(police officer speaking in foreign language) - [Cameraman] Brazil.

- [Police Officer] Brazil.

(police officer speaking in foreign language) (Isabella officer speaking in foreign language) (police officers speaking in foreign language) (Isabella officer speaking in foreign language) - [Cameraman] Where we going?

- [Isabella] Give me the cards.

All the memory cards.

Hide it, just hide it!

(contemplative music) - [Isabella] I was arrested by the Algerian police.

I was charged with foreign espionage for filming undercover and documenting mass human rights violations that the Algerian government wants to keep hidden.

I was facing a prison sentence of 10 years.

I was interrogated, tortured, and raped.

Thanks to American civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was informed about my case, generously took it on and negotiated my release.

I was deported back to the US.

- [Isabella] I'm so happy to meet you.

- [Reverend Jackson] I was made aware of your work by Attorney C.K.

Hoffler.

So we met in Washington.

We met with the Ambassador and we made a number of other calls and we were prepared to go Algeria to meet with the heads of state there.

Ultimately, we worked on them to reconcile our differences.

So people who do your kind of work represent a level of character that's good for the healing of nations.

And when it's real, real dark, light is most apparent.

A sliver of light in a real dark room is enough to see your way through.

- [Isabella] I'm banned from ever returning to Algeria.

After a few weeks of recovery in the US, I planned my return to North Africa.

Reverend knew I would be closely followed by the police.

The risks were even higher.

So before my departure, he connected me to one of the region's longest standing experts.

- [Isabella] My first mission was reconnecting with Jalloh.

After enduring years of detention and forced labor, I received word that all of the brothers had finally escaped Algeria, but Jalloh was the only one who made it back to Morocco.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (Jalloh speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] No.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] No.

(Jalloh speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (Jalloh speaking in foreign language) - [Phino] Hello.

(Phino speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Ah, Phino!

- [Phino] Isabella, Isabella, Isabella.

(Isabella laughs) (Phino speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Phino speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] It had been four years since I began filming.

And while Jalloh was standing back in the same place I first met him, three of the 10 journeys I was following had finally reached the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.

After reaching Europe, asylum seekers must question where they're most likely to find enough work to survive.

This means French speakers often continue their journeys until they reach France, a country that colonized their homes in Africa only 60 years ago.

(Phino speaking in foreign language) (African music) (Phino speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Phino's final asylum claim was denied.

Without papers, his dream of reuniting with his wife and daughter on safer shores was as distant as it had ever been.

(Phino speaking in foreign language) (spirited African music) - [Isabella] This was Moneba and Mamadou's first time seeing each other since they survived their crossing more than two years ago.

- [Isabella] Moneba!

- [Moneba] Isabella (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou laughs) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (pensive music) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou laughs) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) - [Refugees] Boza, boza, boza!

- [Isabella] Even the few who survive their crossing know that over 90% will immediately be sent back, not to their home countries, but to the horrors they just fled in Morocco, Algeria or Libya.

The rejection rate for Africans seeking asylum is higher than any other in the world.

(melancholic music) - [Isabella] Bambino!

- [Isabella] While I was never able to film inside Bambino's detention center, I visited him during the few hours a week children are allowed to breathe fresh air.

I learned he would be detained until his 18th birthday, which was still three years away.

(Isabella and Bambino speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] But it had been more than a year since my last visit with Bambino.

More than a year since me or any of the brothers had heard from him.

(phone ringing) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] I knew if anyone could help us find Bambino, it would be Jose Palazon, the leading human rights activist in Melilla.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (guard speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Andy, I'm going to ask the other detainees.

There are some behind the guard's house.

(kid speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (cameraman speaking in foreign language) (kid speaking in foreign language) (Isabella gasps) (melancholic music) (kid speaking in foreign language) (cameraman speaking in foreign language) (kid speaking in foreign language) (cameraman speaking in foreign language) (kid speaking in foreign language) (cameraman speaking in foreign language) (teenage boy speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (kid speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] I remembered the last time I saw Bambino, walking along the border and hearing his big plans for the future.

He wanted to help the family he left behind.

But he was excited to buy his first soccer ball too.

He was a child, forced to flee his home at 11 years old, certain there was a safer place waiting for him.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh (Jose speaking in foreign language) Let me be free I am down on my knees I'm begging you please let go Let me be free Whoa ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh (melancholic music) - [Isabella] Seven years after I began filming, I was headed back to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea to reconnect with the brothers who are rebuilding their lives there.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Bravo!

(Moneba laughs) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Without legal status, Moneba has limited work opportunities in Spain.

He takes every job he can find, picking fruit and harvesting vegetables as a day laborer.

He lacks the ability to continue his education or access healthcare if he's injured on the job.

He lives in constant fear of being arrested by the police and sent back to Morocco.

And like Phino, he knows he has little chance of ever reuniting with his family.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella and Moneba speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Moneba laughs) (Moneba speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (birds chirping) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou continue speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Of the 10 whose journeys I followed, Mamadou was the only one to be granted refugee status in Europe.

We were all celebrating for him.

But his success highlights the failings of a system designed to protect those who are forced to flee their homes.

Mamadou's home was only miles from the homes of Moneba, Ibrahim, Jalloh, and Bambino.

Why is he the only one whose story was believed?

(Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] After burning all of their identification papers in hopes of reaching Europe, the few who finally do must begin a long and complicated process of proving their existence before they can apply for asylum.

(Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Taubias speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Isabella and Mamadou laugh) (Taubias and Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Mamadou asked me if I could travel to his village on my next trip to Guinea and hand deliver the very first copy of his book.

(Mamadou speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] Mamadou!

(Mamadou's mother speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou's best friend speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou's best friend speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou's best friend speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Mamadou's best friend speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (African music) - [Isabella] Like Mamadou, I knew Moneba hadn't seen his family since he left home nine years ago.

His mother had lost all of her other sons, her eldest son to the ongoing war in Guinea and her youngest son to abuse in Libya.

Before leaving Guinea, I wanted her to know that Moneba was safe in Spain.

(Moneba speaking in foreign language) (lips kissing) (African music continues) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (bright African music) (Isabella laughs) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Isabella laughs) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (group laughs) (lively music) (motorcycle revving) (Moussa speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (Isabella speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) (Marabout speaking in foreign language) (upbeat African music) - [Isabella] Encore, encore!

(crowd cheering and laughing) (Kia screams) (upbeat African music continues) (serene music) (crowd chattering) - [Ibrahim] In Morocco, I made one year, six month trying to cross, but it doesn't work.

I said, "No, let me come back home, try to marry my girl."

The first time I saw her, she was really beautiful.

I forget all the pain that I spent in Morocco.

I was so happy.

I said, "Will you allow a poor man to engage you?"

She said, "Why not?"

"There's one thing that matters more than money."

I said, "What?"

She said, "It's love."

- [Isabella] Many days, fear of violence forces Ibrahim and his wife to stay inside.

When it's safe to leave, he works long hours as a driver, but the majority of the money he earns goes directly to the man who owns the car.

- [Ibrahim] Now I have started to find my family.

Whenever I see my boy, I say that, "My dream has come true."

(child laughs) My friend gave me a call and said, "The chief made it."

I said, "Oh, thank God."

I have made a journey with a lot of people.

Some lost their lives, some is in Europe.

Some of them says that, "Ibrahim, you don't have to regret it."

"You know the life here is really hard to live."

Yeah, the place is really so beautiful, but is my friend in Europe feeling good there?

Does he have a house or he's sleeping outside?

You need to ask yourself that question before ever leaving.

(African music) (Moussa speaking in foreign language) - [Isabella] As is tradition, Kia spent the week following her wedding in a bridal tent, where Moussa visited and her new family welcomed her with special foods.

(Kia speaking in foreign language) (Mari speaking in foreign language) (Kia speaking in foreign language) (spirited music) - [Isabella] Immigration is an inherent part of the human condition.

None of us can trace our family histories without it.

And today, our countries and communities are richer in every way because of it.

(somber music) We are standing in the middle of the largest humanitarian crisis of our time.

More than 120 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

But we have to remember, at the heart of every statistic, there's one mother, brother, father, who's been faced with impossible choices.

The burning is an act of sacrifice.

It requires enormous courage, and above all, it requires hope.

- [Ibrahim] My son is too young to understand the choice he will have to make.

Do you stay at home or leave your home so you can be safe?

Do you stay with your family or leave your family so they can eat?

I hope before our children are old enough to understand, we will make a better world for them.

(spirited music) (footsteps thumping) (lively African music) (lively African music continues) (lively African music continues) (lively African music continues) (lively African music continues) (lively African music continues) (spirited African music)