With Far-Right Nationalism on the Rise, FRONTLINE Goes Inside the Global Refugee Crisis

Exodus: The Journey Continues Follows Families Fleeing Violence, but Facing Increasing Anti-Migrant Sentiment and Europe’s Tightened Borders

Exodus: The Journey Continues Tuesday, January 23, 2018, at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST on PBS (check local listings) pbs.org/frontline/exodus-the-journey-continues www.facebook.com/frontline | Twitter: @frontlinepbs #frontlinepbs Instagram: @frontlinepbs  | YouTube: youtube.com/frontline

Over one-and-a-half million refugees and migrants have smuggled themselves to the West since 2015, fleeing countries besieged by violence and poverty in search of safety and a better life.

But as FRONTLINE’s Exodus: The Journey Continues explores, the countries they dreamed of reaching have changed.

On January 23, FRONTLINE will premiere Exodus: The Journey Continues – a two-hour documentary telling the intimate, firsthand stories of refugees and migrants caught in Europe’s tightened borders, and facing heightened nationalism and rising anti-immigrant sentiment.

“When we were back home, we’d talk about how peaceful and wonderful it would be in Europe, and that we’d live happily ever after,” says a young man named Azizzulah, who fled Afghanistan after his brother — who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army — was killed in a bombing that also killed four American soldiers. “But had I known that the way would be so difficult, I would have never come.”

Airing at a special time, 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST, the film is a stunning sequel to FRONTLINE’s 2016 documentary Exodus, which is being honored with a Columbia-duPont Award for excellence in journalism on Jan. 16. As the global migration and refugee crisis continues and countries become less welcoming to those seeking refuge, the documentary is an eye-opening look at the evolving crisis that draws on footage filmed by the refugees themselves.

In Exodus: The Journey Continues, you’ll meet Tamir, an Iraqi man who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army. He and his wife are now living in Nebraska and working at McDonalds — but following President Trump’s travel ban, the rest of his family is in limbo: “We make our family to be targets for the terrorist groups, just because we work with the U.S.,” he says, adding that yet, “my family is living in a tent in Iraq.”

You’ll meet Nazifa, who fled Afghanistan, and whose two young children have spent their entire lives in camps: “The best part of someone’s life is their childhood, but right now my children are in a cage,” she says, adding, “I will not give up until I make a safe home for my children.”

Exodus: The Journey Continues also introduces Moussa, a young economic migrant who has traveled 2,600 miles from Guinea to Morocco, and is preparing to storm a barbed wire fence and cross into Spain with the help of a shadowy group that calls itself “The Government.” “Real life is found in Europe. A life where you can be free, where you can live in peace, everything is in Europe,” Moussa says.

And finally, Exodus: The Journey Continues follows up with several characters from the 2016 Exodus documentary – including Sadiq, a young man from Afghanistan seeking asylum in Finland, and Isra’a, a young girl who with her family fled Syria and were let in to Germany before Europe’s borders began to tighten.

“Our story is a tragedy for all Syrians. Blood on the ground and innocent people dying. I don’t wish this to happen to any human on this earth,” says Isra’a’s father, Tarek, adding, “We were the lucky ones.”

Harrowing and profound, Exodus: The Journey Continues is an unforgettable window into the human stories of the evolving refugee crisis. Watch Exodus: The Journey Continues Tuesday, January 23 at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST on PBS (check local listings) or online.

Credits Exodus: The Journey Continues is a Keo Films production for WGBH/FRONTLINE and BBC. The director is James Bluemel. The senior producer is Dan Edge. The executive producers for Keo Films are Will Anderson and Andrew Palmer. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 89 Emmy Awards and 20 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and Google+ to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.

Press Contact FRONTLINE, Patrice Taddonio, Patrice_taddonio@wgbh.org, @ptaddonio