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Hanging On for Dear Life

Stories from the migrant-ship graveyards of south Italy; Saudi Arabia's luxurious jails for militants; a Japanese brain-training laboratory, and the boa-infested island of Aruba

Pascale Harter introduces tales of bravery, guile and foolhardiness from reporters and writers around the world.

Daniel Gordon visits the migrant-ship graveyard in the Sicilian ports of Pozzalo, and hears how Italy and Italians are dealing with this summer's influx of people arriving via the Mediterranean Sea; Barbara Plett Usher visits some surprisingly well-appointed prison cells in Saudi Arabia, destined to house those associated with Islamic State and other jihadi groups; Adam Shaw racks his brain (but still loses against an eightysomething veteran) in a maths-game contest at a Japanese neuroscience laboratory; and Rob Crossan braves the scrubby expanses of Arikok National Park in Aruba, now full of feral boa constrictors which have learned how to hitch-hike their way around the island.

Photo: A rescued migrant is identified with a number after disembarking at the Sicilian harbour of Catania on April 24, 2015. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)

Available now

25 minutes

Last on

Sun 10 May 2015 21:05GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 9 May 2015 13:05GMT
  • Sun 10 May 2015 02:05GMT
  • Sun 10 May 2015 08:05GMT
  • Sun 10 May 2015 21:05GMT