Unreported World - Season 12 / Year 2011

Unreported World meets remarkable people fighting back against leprosy in India, where millions affected by the disease are pushed to the margins of society, ostracised by their friends and families. Based on targets set by the World Health Organization, the Indian government claims it has eliminated leprosy. However Unreported World reveals the numbers of new cases in some areas could be much higher than previously estimated.

Unreported World travels to eastern Congo to witness the remarkable work of one man who liberates the child soldiers who have been forced to fight in one of the world's longest-running conflicts. While they are fortunate enough to film the moments several dozen youngsters are released, the team also discovers that hundreds more are being abducted as rebels and the army prepare for a new round of fighting.

Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director James Jones travel from Italy to Africa to reveal how human traffickers are using black magic to coerce and trap Nigerian women into a life of prostitution in Europe. Women are made to swear an oath of loyalty to their traffickers in an elaborate ritual that compels them to pay back extortionate sums of money. If they ever break free or report their traffickers, they believe they will be cursed.

In 2010, more civilians were killed in political, ethnic and criminal violence in Karachi than in terrorist attacks across the whole of Pakistan. While the state seems unable to control the violence, reporter Peter Oborne and director Edward Watts spend time with a few courageous individuals who are risking their lives to hold the line against anarchy in Pakistan's largest city.

Reporter Oliver Steeds and producer Matt Haan travel to China to follow one father's inspirational search for his son, who was abducted and sold into slavery. They expose one of the untold stories behind China's economic boom, discovering how thousands of young men with mental impairments have been kidnapped and forced to work in brick factories. The team meet 62-year-old farmer He Zhimin in Sanyuan town in central China. He Wen - his son who has the mental age of a child and used to live at home - went missing last June.

Unreported World exposes the plight of hundreds of children in Burundi locked up for years without trial in adult prisons, among some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. And they meet one man who has dedicated his life to freeing them; Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa is the only hope many of these children have. Burundi has no juvenile justice system and children above the age of 15 are tried as adults. By law any child under that age should not be imprisoned, but in a country recovering from civil war and where record keeping is scant, many underage children are slipping through the net and are being locked up.

Mexico's drug wars have been well reported, but there is a frightening, new phenomenon that is going largely unnoticed. A growing number of journalists are being killed or 'disappeared' as they try to report on drug violence and the growing links between the cartels and the corrupt police and politicians. Reporter Evan Williams and Director Alex Nott travel to Ciudad Juarez, on the US border, to experience the daily life of a journalist who has been called one of the most courageous women in Mexico.

Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Alex Nott arrive in Abidjan, the commercial capital of the Ivory Coast in West Africa, to report on the escalating political crisis. Instead they find themselves one of the few television crews to be there as terrifying violence tears apart a city that had been described as the Paris of West Africa. For four months President Laurent Gbagbo has clung to power - despite losing elections. As the team arrives fighters loyal to Alassane Outtara, who has won the UN-backed elections, are advancing towards the presidential palace.

In the Sinai desert, thousands of African immigrants fleeing conscription, torture and conflict in East Africa risk being shot by border guards and held ransom by people smugglers as they try to get to Israel. The director Paul Kittel and his reporter arrive in the Sinai desert in north-east Egypt just over a month after the revolution that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Smuggling from Egypt to Israel has gone on for years, but now the smugglers are focused on people rather than goods.

Unreported World travels to Indonesia to meet young environmental activists battling to save endangered species such as orang-utans and sea turtles. Reporter Aidan Hartley and producer Rodrigo Vazquez visit a vast market where critically endangered animals are sold as pets or for the Chinese medicine trade, and uncover allegations of corruption and harassment of the campaigners. Borneo has one of the planet's last big forests, but every hour an area the size of three football pitches is cut down to be used for palm oil production. The Unreported World team joins one team of young, local environmentalists who are trying to rescue the orang-utan, which, because of the loss of its habitat, is heading for extinction.

New Unreported World reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy visits South Africa. Seventeen years after it was freed from apartheid, he finds a country in which violent protests against corruption and the lack of basic services mean its ambition to lead the continent as a prosperous democracy hangs in the balance. Simmering with anger, South Africa's people tell Krishnan they feel a sense of betrayal they will tolerate no longer.

Ramita Navai and Wael Dabbous spend two weeks living undercover in some of the most dangerous parts of Syria with members of the opposition movement determined to overthrow President Assad's brutal dictatorship. One of the few teams to avoid the ban on foreign media operating without official permission, they meet the protestors and the victims of the bloody crackdown, and visit the clandestine hospitals set up in private homes by doctors who risk torture or death for treating the injured.

Jenny Kleeman and Suemay Oram travel to Uganda to investigate hydrocephalus: a preventable yet misunderstood condition that affects a quarter of a million babies a year in Sub-Saharan Africa. They visit Africa's only paediatric neurosurgery hospital and meet the mothers in a race against time to save their babies' lives.

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers. By promoting the dream of escaping poverty, they have turned their churches into corporations, which are changing the face of Christianity. Every Sunday millions of Nigerians crowd into thousands of competing churches. The team visits one church in Lagos run by Dr Sign Fireman, an up-and-coming preacher who is attempting to break into the big time. They find 2000 people at an event billed as the Burial of Satan. After a rock star entrance, Dr Fireman begins his service by exorcising the demons in his congregation.

Unreported World reveals the huge personality cult around Vladimir Putin as it follows the extraordinary actions of the mass youth movement dedicated to protecting the interests of the Prime Minister and Russia. As Putin announces his intention to return as President, reporter Peter Oborne and director James Jones meet some of the young people who are utterly devoted to him, have seemingly limitless resources, and appear to be above the law. Outside the American Embassy in Moscow the team films members of Nashi, or 'Our People', as the movement is called, spray-painting 'Russia Forward' in six-foot letters, following criticism of Russia by the American Defence Secretary. The police step in, but it soon becomes clear who is in charge as Nashi members bully, shove and chase away the officers in an extraordinary display of strength. Nashi's headquarters are in a £20 million house in central Moscow, decorated with murals of Putin and quotes from his speeches. Oborne joins Nashi's weekly political meeting, which reveals a sinister side to its patriotism as anti-western and racist views come to the fore among some members. Masha Kislitsnya, Nashi's Commissar, describes how her experience growing up as the daughter of a single mother in the 1990s formed the basis for her admiration for Putin. She recalls that her family lived in dire poverty while the government was in collapse following the fall of communism, with the shops often empty of goods. Everything changed for the better, she says, when Putin took over. Oborne also meets 21-year-old Nashi members Victoria and Oksana. They believe Putin has restored pride and prosperity to Russia and say joining Nashi was a way to express their adoration. They show and describe their favourite pictures of their leader, declaring that they are fanatics and that they worship him. Critics say Nashi's true function is to build a personality cult for Vladmir Putin, while bullying, intimidating and harassing his opponents. The team speak to journalist Oleg Kashin, who was brutally beaten up after writing an article criticising a business project of one of Putin's closest allies. His attackers have never been caught but Kashin tells Oborne he believes Nashi were most likely behind the attack, as one of his articles featured a project which they supported. Nashi denies all involvement, with Masha dismissing the suggestion as 'just accusations'. While Putin's Russia may look like a liberal democracy - with elections, law courts and parliament - Unreported World shows how in reality there is a parallel state. Putin is a former Director of Russia's security service, the FSB - successor to the notorious KGB. Critics say that, just like Nashi, the FSB is used to silence opposition and further the business interests of Putin's allies. The team meets Olga Romanova, a financial journalist whose husband Alexei ran a profitable construction business until she ran an article exposing the business practices of a close Putin ally. Olga claims Alexei was given the choice between divorcing his wife or losing his business. Soon afterwards the FSB started an investigation. Alexei was arrested, charged and sent to jail for eight years for the theft of shares - a crime she says he had not committed. As the Unreported World team leaves Russia, it seems as though Nashi's worship may be turning Putin into one of the archetypal figures who occur throughout Russian history: a strongman with mystical powers, attracting uncritical devotion from his followers. What also seems clear is that the future of democracy and the rule of law in Vladimir Putin's Russia is under threat.

Unreported World meets members of the Palestinian Paralympic team hoping to qualify for London 2012. They find athletes struggling to train in the conflict zone. In a territory where those who die fighting the Israelis are considered the true heroes, the Paralympic team goes completely unrecognised by its own people. Nobody knows who team captain and discus thrower Khamis Zaqout is, despite the international medals he's won since he helped establish disabled sports in the Occupied Territories two decades ago. This is in spite of the fact that the only athletes representing Palestine in London will be disabled ones, since there is no Palestinian Olympic team. Reporter Aidan Hartley and director Richard Cookson meet Khamis as he struggles to find a taxi to take him to the gym. He introduces them to the rest of his eight-man squad at the training ground: a little patch of green in an overcrowded enclave of bombed-out buildings and shanties. The news is that, as things stand, only four Palestinians are going to qualify to make it to the Games. The athletes are shocked and tensions boil over. Mohammed Fanuna, a partially sighted long jumper and javelin thrower, loses his temper. The news is too much for him to take when he also has all the other daily worries of living in Gaza - the air strikes, the siege, the lack of freedom to travel, the poverty - and of course his disability. Another very worried young athlete is 20-year-old Abed Abuwatfa, who invites the team back to the home he shares with his parents. Abed tells Hartley that the suspense over whether he will qualify for London is adding to the pressure on him to give up sport and find a job. Three of Abed's cousins are deaf and his two sisters are also disabled, placing an enormous burden on the family. In Gaza it's common for poor people to marry into their extended families, which is a major reason why it has one of the highest rates of disability in the world. The team learn that there's also a women's team. Disabled Palestinian women athletes have never had the chance to compete overseas as in this conservative Muslim society their families hadn't allowed them to travel alone. This time, coach Hala Shakura has persuaded the families to allow them to go. One of them, shot putter Fatma Halooli, is the team's best hope for a place on the podium if she can make it to London. She says she needs a new leg to perform well, but her best hope of getting that is if she qualifies. If she becomes a winner, she says, she might attract a sponsor who will give her the new leg she dreams of. Gaza is effectively under siege and Israel controls the goods that go in, which has caused problems for the athletes as well as disabled people more generally, since it's difficult for amputees to get equipment such as prosthetic limbs or suitable wheelchairs. The team visits the only place in the Gaza Strip that manufactures them. Since the last war in Gaza, Israel has relaxed a blockade on a range of items and denies that it blocks medical supplies, but the centre's director alleges that one donation from Slovenia has been stuck in an Israeli warehouse for the last eight months. The conflict itself is also swelling the number of injuries and amputations. Hartley notices one young man who watches the training sessions but never joins in. Adli Obeid lost his left leg when he was recently blown up by an Israeli drone-launched missile. He wants to join the team but can't until he finds an artificial limb and recovers from shrapnel injuries. Hartley and Cookson meet some of the athletes one last time. They learn that Khamis is one of the four almost definitely going to London. Abed is still on the borderline but has decided to defy his family and keep training. Hatem is struggling to improve his personal best at discus so he doesn't miss out, and Mohamed has resumed training and is one of the squad's best bets for a medal.

Across India more than 60,000 children go missing every year. Unreported World explores the dark side of the booming economy, as many children are kidnapped into domestic slavery for the growing middle class and businesses, and others are kidnapped for ransom by those desperate to share some of the country's new wealth. In Delhi alone seven children go missing every day. Reporter Evan Williams and director James Brabazon discover that the capital has become a major destination and transit point for tens of thousands of children being trafficked into forced labour, prostitution, begging and drug running.

Trinidad has become the murder capital of the Caribbean. While half a million tourists soak up the carnival atmosphere every year, the government has introduced a state of emergency to try to stop the gang violence that results in a murder on average every 17 hours. At 11pm in the capital Port of Spain the atmosphere changes as a strict curfew comes into force and the normally bustling city becomes a ghost town. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Will West are only allowed out because they have obtained a special curfew pass for journalists.

Indigenous people in Honduras are risking their lives diving to dangerous depths for lobsters destined for North American and European diners. Overfishing means they must now dive as deep as 150ft to land their catch. Each time they dive, they risk paralysis or death from the bends. Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Daniel Bogado travel into the Caribbean with divers on board a lobster diving boat. Kleeman discovers that while companies and consumers care about buying tuna that's caught in a way that doesn't harm dolphins, we don't seem to care about lobster that's caught in a way that has left hundreds dead and thousands paralysed.

Unreported World investigates the effect of controversial emergency legislation on Australia's Aboriginal population. The government has used this legislation to take control of many Aboriginal settlements. It said this was help to end violence and child abuse, and combat the alcohol abuse that ravages many Aboriginal communities. Reporter Oliver Steeds and director Ed Braman begin their journey in Alice Springs - visited by tens of thousands of Britons every year for its aboriginal art galleries and tourist sites - where alcohol addiction is still ravaging the lives of the country's original inhabitants, many of whom live in desolate squatter camps on the outskirts of town.