Exodus: Our Journey

Twelve months ago, the production team began giving camera phones to people attempting to reach Europe, escaping war, poverty or persecution. They were prepared to film where regular film crews could not go: on the inflatable dinghies crossing from Turkey to Greece, in the back of lorries entering the Eurotunnel, or on open trucks driven by people smugglers across the Sahara.

21-year-old Alaigie is preparing to leave Gambia to travel 'the back way' 6,000 kilometres to Italy to find work. Following his father's death, Alaigie's dreams of becoming an engineer were shattered and he needs to earn money to support his family. He films the dangerous journey through Africa via a network of smugglers, at the mercy of thieves and violent border guards, across the Sahara in overloaded trucks to Tripoli. But instead of getting on a boat as he had expected, Alaigie is kidnapped and a ransom is demanded. His family in Gambia struggle to raise the money to pay.

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurd Ahmad's attempt to be smuggled into Britain in the back of a lorry finally pays off, and he's sent to Wakefield while his asylum claim is processed. He's desperate to get leave to remain so that he can bring his wife and young daughters out of Syria. With their home town under attack from Daesh (so-called Islamic State) and the Assad regime, the clock is ticking for him to get them to safety.

And 27-year-old Hassan, who survived the sinking of his dinghy in the Mediterranean, has reached Calais and the infamous Jungle. But every attempt to board a train or lorry is thwarted, and his spirits fall as he sees his friends succeed in crossing the Channel. In desperation he tries to fly to the UK on a fake Czech passport, but the final few miles prove the hardest to travel.

Filmed by both production and the refugees themselves, the result is a terrifyingly intimate yet uniquely epic portrait of the biggest movement of people that Europe has seen since World War Two.

In this first episode we meet Dame, who arrived in the UK over 17 months ago. "I am a ghost in a prison" is how he describes his experience of life as a refugee in London.

Ali and are Sharin are newly weds from Afghanistan. They have spent the last month camping on the streets of Thessaloniki, waiting for smugglers to get them across the heavily guarded borders into Macedonia and Serbia. This is not the honeymoon they dreamed of.

The rise of the right reverberates across Europe. Nazifa and Latif make a potentially life-changing decision.

We also revisit Israa and her family (from series one), who risked their lives escaping Syria in 2015 and made the terrifying journey to Europe when borders were open and refugees welcome. They're living in a flat in Germany, and Israa is facing her first day at school.

Meanwhile, Azizula must face his fears and attempt to cross the Hungarian border, knowing it is patrolled by armed guards who use dogs to deter and attack the refugees attempting to cut through the fence from Serbia to Hungary.

This final episode of the series follows the fate of Nazifa and her family as they make a final attempt to reach Germany. We catch up with Sadiq, who in series one managed to travel from Afghanistan to his destination of Finland in just 45 days. However, the welcome he experienced when he arrived has not been sustained. Across Europe policies have changed and deals have been struck, which means that if Sadiq's asylum claim fails, he faces forced deportation. Across the Atlantic, the USA is no longer welcoming refugees from the Middle East. President Trump's executive orders have far reaching consequences for those who were on the verge of emigrating to join family members already in the USA. We meet Saed and his family, who are Yezidis from Iraq, one of Daesh's main targets. They are living in a refugee camp waiting for their papers to be processed.