Rubbish tip Final Scrip 30-04-2016

Change boxes 10, 14, 42, 49

·         Pic

Comm/Sync

·         Drone shots of rubbish tip.

Pre title

This is the rubbish tip for the city of Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Each day it gets bigger, fed by a fleet of trucks bringing ever more waste. For some people, it’s also the final escape from war. Because the tip provides a living for hundreds of refugees. This is their story.

·         13 year old Ibrahim from Syria, works with his father

Ibrahim: A kilo of plastic is worth 250 Iraqi dinars

Namak: What’s your daily rate?

I: It depends. I collect about 100 kilos

N: How much would you get for that?

I: About $10 

N: So your daily rate is $10?

I: Yes

N: What do you do when you get home?

I: I have a shower, then I sleep

We don't play games and stuff

N: Not even football?

I: No. It’s tiring, working here till one o’clock

After that it’s too hot to play football

N: Would you like to work somewhere else?

I: I’d like to work in a clean place

But here there’s nothing else

Come and meet my father

·          

COMM

Ibrahim and his family are Kurds from Kobani in Syria. They’ve been working on the dump for six months.

·          

M: There are eight of us at home.

Our lives are hard

Every day I come here with my son

We need $300 for rent

We also have to save for food and stuff

We barely manage

My other son broke both his legs so they put screws in

One was taken out. We can’t afford to do the other

N: Do you miss your friends in Syria?

I: Yes I do

If it wasn’t for IS I would have gone back

M: It’s not about IS

If my house were still there, I’d have gone back

But where should we go now?

N: Your house was destroyed?

M: Nothing’s left

My house and all the furniture have gone

M: My brother showed me on the internet

It’s been flattened, just like this place

M: I want to go back

If I had a place to live, I’d go.

IS isn’t the problem

Our only choice is to stay here and survive

Where should I take my family?

·          

COMM

Ibrahim would much rather be at school. He’s 13, and some of the other children are even younger.

·         8 years old

Namak: How old are you?

Boy: I’m eight

N: Why do you work here?

Boy: My granny told me to come and help her

·         Young boy from Mosel.

Boy: I’m from Mosul

N: Why are you here?

Boy: Because of IS

They destroyed our homes

We left just with what we were wearing

My grandfather was in hospital

When they attacked Mosul we couldn’t get him out

4 years girl and  6 years old brother,

·          

N: Where are her shoes?

Boy: She doesn’t have any

·          

COMM

It’s July, and the temperature at the dump can reach 50 degrees. The burning rubbish causes a stench that can be smelt 15 kilometres away in Erbil. People there are demanding that the toxic tip be closed. Those working on it just have to put up with the filth.

·         Old man with his daughters,

I don’t have a job

This is my only work 

I have to work in this rubbish tip

N: How many of your family work here?

Man: Me and my two daughters

The others are very young 

They stay with their mother

This one and my other daughter

Where did your sister go?

Daughter: She’s working

·          

Tarfah and her daughter Malayeen come here most days. They sift the rubbish for anything they can sell. They belong to a large family of Bedouins from northern Iraq.

·         Barzan mother

We used to have a good life

We never did this kind of work

Recent events forced us to work here

We’ve got kids but we have no proper home

There’s no electricity or gas

We look for things to sell and clothes to wear

My kids work at anything to provide medicine

for their dad, and food for the family

·          

COMM

Back home, the family were farmers. They had sheep and other animals, and were quite well-off. The two wives have 13 children, and Barzan is the eldest.

·          

·         Barzan and his family leaving the tip.

Barzan

We used to live happily in Bahaj

When IS came, we escaped to northern Iraq

I do any kind of work

Building sites, rubbish tip

Namak : Are you going home now?

Barzan : Yes

Namak: You’ve finished work?

Barzan: Yes. We’re done for the day

We’re going home

·         We followed them home.

Barzan: Come and sit down

·          

COMM

Barzan and his family have been offered the use of a house by a local Kurdish landowner. To make it liveable, they depend on what they find at the dump.

·         Of loading the stuff they collected.

Barzan’s mother

We found some wood to burn

We can heat water to give the kids a hot shower

We found a mattress for the kids to sit on

After we’ve washed it they can sit on it

Malayeen found this jacket. She can wear it in winter

I found all this wood

We sit on this cardboard in the kitchen

Malayeen found this bag too

Namak: What’s in the bag?

Malayeen: I found these shoes

Mother: Do they fit you? They’re too big

·          

COMM

Sometimes they even find food amongst the rubbish. Nothing edible is wasted.

·          

Mother: This is macaroni

Malayeen: I found it. My mother will it them for me

Malayeen: I found this too. 

I don’t know what it is

Mother: Maybe they’re nuts?

·         Barzan mother in the house,

In Bahaj the Iraqi government gave us food

We got it every month

We didn’t need to buy food from the market

It was safe

We were farming

Now there’s no farming in Bahaj

There’s no work and it’s not safe

That’s why we came to Kurdistan

·          

COMM

Yousra is the second wife. She has five young children and spends most of her time at home.

·          

Mother:

Where is Yousra?

Give me the oil

Give me the rice

Where’s the other lighter?

·         Second wife, making bread.

Second wife:

I’m baking bread

The food’s ready for when they get back from work

My parents are still in Mosul

There’s no work there

They have nothing

My father’s salary has stopped

Namak: So they’re not happy there?

Second wife: Not at all

I miss them terribly

Namak: Can’t they come here?

Second wife: No, because the roads are closed

Namak: What do they do there?

Second wife: Nothing at all

·          

Barzan’s mother

Carry on cooking

Go and make the rice

·          

COMM

Mohammed is the husband of Tarfah and Yousra. He used to be a prosperous farmer, but now he has to depend on his wives and children.

·          

Barzan’s father

I have chronic heart and kidney illness

Namak: Have you been sick a long time? 

Barzan’s father: For about five years

·         Family having a launch

Barzan’s mother

Medicines are expensive

Each prescription is about $50

The kids do all sorts of work.

Either at the tip or on a farm

Half the money goes on medication, half on food

·          

COMM

With so many mouths to feed, it’s a constant struggle to earn enough money. The family’s diet is basic, and far from nutritious.

·          Eating

Mother:

Have some rice

He likes to eat by himself, the bastard

·          

COMM

Meanwhile, Muhammed’s need for expensive medicines is putting them under huge extra pressure.

·         At home

Barzan: These are the injections he must have

Barzan’s father: The medicine’s keeping me alive

·          

COMM

Barzan and his brother are taking their father to hospital. He’s diabetic, and needs to see a doctor regularly. They’ll have to pay; and the family is worried he may not make it to the end of the year.

·          

COMM

Six months later. It’s January 2016.

Conditions are freezing but no matter the season, the rubbish from Erbil keeps piling up. The first trucks produce the best pickings. Even at 4am, some people are at work.

Ibrahim and his father, the Syrian Kurds from Kobani, get here two hours later. But the most valuable items have already gone.

·         Ibrahim and his father in winter, 4 months later,

Ibrahim’s dad:

Our lives have been destroyed

We have no work and no income

We come here because we’re desperate

If my family find out that I work here, they’ll be really upset

When they ask what I do for a living, I say I’m a house-painter

If I miss one day here, our income is seriously affected

·          

COMM

Work at the tip is uncertain and poorly paid, but even more people are scavenging now than in July. Some of them have surprising backgrounds.

·        Engineer student.

I used to be a freelance engineer 

My brother’s a doctor, my father’s a university professor

Lots of the people here are graduates or university students

The situation in Iraq is really bad

There’s no work

This is our only option

The Iraqi government doesn’t care about the people

They’re too busy stealing

Having a good life

Let them come and see how we live

Would they want this for their kids?

·          

COMM

For one family, things have got better. Since the summer Mohammed's health has improved. He and his wives and children are still living in the house belonging to Hedi, the Kurdish landowner. And now Hedi’s pays them to work on his farm.

·         Barzan in the house, 6 months later, farming

Barzan:

We use this generator for watering the farm

It makes a loud noise

Mr Hedi promised to get a quieter one

Without the funny noise

·         Barzan and Hedi farming.

Barzan:

How are you, Hedi?

Did you have some tea?

We work on this farm every day

We pull up the vegetables

In the afternoon we leave them in the water

It makes it easier to wash off the dirt

Then we load them in the car

·          

COMM

Hedi doesn’t speak much Arabic and Barzan speaks only a little Kurdish. But by mixing the two languages, they manage to understand each other.

·         Mixture of both languages,

Hedi: Don’t you prefer your home town?

Barzan: Yes, but there’s no work there

Hedi: You feel like a guest here, right?

Barzan: Yes, like a guest

·          

Hedi: I pay them for the days they work

N: What’s his daily rate?

Hedi. $10 per day.

N: How many hours?

Hedi: From 7am till around 5pm

N: Haven’t you also given them shelter?

Hedi: I gave them a house to live in

It’s good for all of us

I’m alone

If I don’t have them, I can’t do it all by myself

Barzan: Amani, call Lialy

Both of you, take these vegetables to the pool

·          

COMM

Unlike most of the refugees, Mohammed and his family have returned to something like their old way of life. But it’s small compensation. The Iraq Mohammed knew has gone forever.

·         Barazan father

Barzan’s father:

Things were better under Saddam

We were safe

I miss the old Iraq

There was no difference between Kurds, Shias or Sunnis

Iraq

You could travel from border to border

The old Iraq

We Bedouins lived freely in the desert

When IS took control, they started ambushing us

If they caught us they’d take our sheep

They took our cars too

It got really bad

That’s why we came to Kurdistan. It’s safe

·          

COMM

Thanks to their friendship with Hedi, the family’s circumstances have definitely improved. But life is still far harder than anything they knew back home in Mosel.

·         Second wife:

Yousra:

Our life is tough

My husband and the old woman are both sick

There’s no medicine

Our life is terrible

It’s winter and it’s very cold

The kids will freeze if we don’t keep them warm

We don’t have any heaters

It’s dreadful

I’m sad and depressed

We used to live in heaven,

even though we’re Bedouins

Life was joyful

Surrounded by family and relatives

Here I have no-one

When my brothers were around we didn’t need a thing

Every day I sit crying and think of them

But what’s the point? There’s no solution

How life has changed

Back then, I had everything

·         End 

COMM

Ibrahim and his father are no longer working on the rubbish tip. They’ve found jobs in a chicken factory.

Despite the calls to close the toxic dump,

it remains open. So long as it does, it will offer Kurdistan’s most desperate refugees some kind of living.