Erstellt am: 28. 9. 2012 - 14:43 Uhr

A Heartbroken Syrian Child

Reality Check: Desperation on the Turkish border with Syria, more migrant misery in Greece, hawkish words from Israel, a French "Robin Hood" budget and the Vatileaks trial.

Today on Reality Check we were confronted with the heart-wrenching human cost of the war in Syria. One of our correspondents was given access to the refugee camps on the Turkish/Syrian border.

The ongoing violence there has created a dramatic refugee crisis. 300,000 Syrians have fled the fighting, which is already an overwhelming number, but the UN has warned that the figure will more than double before the year is out. Many of them flee to neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan, but most of them end up in Turkey, which is Syria’s northern neighbour.

The refugee camps along the Turkish side of the border are overflowing. Journalists have often been denied access inside the camps but Tony Cheng was given a rare permit to look around and meet some of the refugees. He was impressed with the facilities there: the Turkish government has already spent 300 million dollars on looking after the Syrian exiles. However there are concerns that it won’t be able to cope with the new influx. And no amount of money can repair the psychological wounds suffered by the victims of Syria’s brutal war.

Tony Cheng

Tony met an 8 year old child, Hussain, who had been shot in the leg and had suffered shrapnel wounds to his side. His father had been killed in the violence. The little boy couldn’t sleep and when Tony visited he clasped a photo of his father, holding it close to his body. “He was clearly heart-broken”, says Tony. Hussain’s younger siblings hadn’t understood what had happened to their father and kept asking when he would return.

Yes, says Tony, the camps do offer some form physical comfort and even psychological support. But until the conflict is resolved and people dare return home, free from the threat of men with guns, there can be no real comfort.

More Refugee Misery in Greece

A refugee crisis is like a domino rally of misery. Last year we saw headlines about appalling conditions at detention camps in Greece for migrants coming across the border from Turkey. A large proportion of people who try come to Europe in search of a better life do so by entering Greece. But Greece is a country with a huge economic burden of its own. In connection with the Ärzte Ohne Grenzen initiative Leben auf der Flucht.

Irina Oberguggenberger

Salinia Stroux told us about how migrants in Greece “ no social support, no welfare and hardly any food supply”:

• Israel, Iran and a Red Line

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the United Nations General Assembly and argued his case for defining the “red line” with regard to Iran’s nuclear programme. International Security expert Shashank Joshi analyses Netanyahu’s presentation:

• Robin Hood Hollande?

Four months after defeating Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande has been criticised for dithering and his approval rates have plummeted.

Today he presented what he believes is a decisive budget that should get France back on track economically and also fight inequality. It includes sharp tax hikes on business and the rich. Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici says it is “a serious budget, it's a leftist budget and it's fighting budget”. So how is the news going down in France? Correspondent Hugh Schofield told me there was a lot of scepticism :

• Vatileaks

The butler did it! The cliché of cheap whodunnits is apparently the reality of the leaked document scandal that has hit the Vatican - the pope, his butler, stolen documents, an explosive book titled “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI” . Tomorrow, Saturday, Paolo Gabriele goes on trial, charged with aggravated theft for stealing the pope’s private correspondence and other documents. Our correspondent in Rome, Jo McKenna, on the scandal which has rocked the Catholic Church: