“Return from where you come from”: this controversial British reality TV that puts candidates in migrants

A concept that arouses controversy. British television channel Channel 4 has decided to adapt a human drama to a game by launching a reality TV show “Returns from where you come from” (“Go back to where you cam” in original version) in which the candidates are put in conditions announced “similar” to those of “real” asylum seekers, although they are accompanied by a shooting team.

The series broadcast for the first time on February 3 follows six participants with very different opinions on the situation and the rights of refugees. They are separated into two groups made up of two people with virulent opinions against refugees and a much more tolerant person, and are taken to Mogadiscio (Somalia) and Raqqa (Syria) to see the ravages of war and what are confronted those who remain.

Candidates who change speeches

“England will eventually look like this”, “I would like the Royal Navy to put mines along the coasts and have the illegal boats explode”, “why you have children if you don’t have money” … The racist and discriminatory remarks fuse from the start of the program, but the most virulent candidates quickly change their opinion.

Dave, one of the candidates who even went so far as to compare migrants to “rats” at the start of the program, ends up changing their mind and even shed a tear by indicating that he would like to bring children with him to him Nottingham after seeing the trash cans to eat.

If this staging is criticized across the Channel, the program presents itself as “educational”, wishing to show British viewers the perilous journey of refugees who try to go to the United Kingdom. Channel 4 did not fail to publish the contrasting reactions of the show’s detractors by relaying comments from Internet users accusing the chain of giving the floor to “racists” or of being a “leftist” program.

A “deeply disappointing” program

Producer Emma Young defends the concept of her show by indicating that she wanted to make the subject “more accessible”. “Many would not look at a traditional documentary on the subject. We have looked for a way to interest them, ”she says.

An explanation that does not convince NGOs, like Amnesty International which describes the program as “sensationalist” and “deeply disappointing”. “You cannot imitate the experience of war, torture, persecution and modern slavery through the sanitized prism of reality TV,” said Care4Calais in Times.