Channel 4’s acclaimed foreign affairs strand exposes a dark side to Egypt that the authorities don’t want foreigners to see: a secretive society of around 40,000 people literally living in rubbish in a Cairo ghetto overrun by rats and disease.
Reporter Evan Williams and producer James Brabazon are some of the first journalists to film inside the ghetto where tens of thousands live with garbage stacked to the roofs of their multi-storey homes, eking out a living recycling the rubbish by hand. It’s a sight rarely seen by outsiders, and almost definitely not by the million British tourists who visit Egypt every year.
This group is unique for another reason. They’re part of Muslim Egypt’s Christian minority; a community claiming to be besieged by persecution, extremism and a creeping Islamisation in Egypt’s security services.
Friday 2 May 2008 7.35pm, Channel 4.
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