To go beyond the article on pages 8-9 of English Now No 93, watch the video of Ewan McGregor testifying as a UNICEF ambassador. Then, watch the video again, while reading the transcript below.
Transcript
Ewan McGregor: “So, I came to Northern Iraq and I spent three days going around different camps. The first day,
we looked at a camp that was housing Syrian refugees, and then yesterday and today, we’re looking at camps with
internally displaced people fleeing from the violence in Iraq. So, I’ve been really impressed and moved by the
families I’ve met, how their most important thing in their world, even though they’ve lost their world if you
like, is to be together, how important that is, to the point where I’ve met families who say it doesn’t matter
that our houses are gone, that our villages are rubble, we’re together and that’s all that really matters, and
that’s been really touching and moving for me.
And then, just seeing the scale of it. They’re putting electricity cables in, they’re digging new toilets for
the thousands and thousands of other refugees they’re expecting to arrive. It’s kind of unbelievable. I really
passionately believe we’ve got to keep… Sorry.
They’re just wee kids, you know, like ours. There’s a little boy we met yesterday whose eyes were very glazed,
and he’d been in the camp for only a week, and he talked about his house being targeted and mortared, so they
had to leave. But he was like six, seven. It was an extraordinary thing to hear, something we couldn’t imagine, eh?!
It’s true that there’s a… There can be an attitude in Britain, which is being perpetuated by politicians, that people
are coming to our country because they’d be better off, and they’re sort of breaking down our doors to try and flood
in. And the truth is that people here have… We’ve had extraordinary stories of people running with their child while…
through sniper fire, people fleeing across rivers with babies, not because they think they can come and get money
out of our government in Britain, but because there’s no other choice.
I’ve never felt more confused and upset by what I’ve seen, but also driven, that it’s just clear that they’ve
got to try and help, you know, because it’s monumentally massive, this problem here. Millions of children are
in dire straits here. We can’t just think it’s not our problem, we’ve got to try and help. I think it’s just…
It’s easy not to really see it and to keep it out here, but I would try and go home and make sure people bring
it back in front of their vision.”