Radio Drama Humanizes Syrian Refugee Crisis

The issue of Syrian refugees in the United States has become a highly charged political and emotional debate. Dozens of governors across the country have called for the resettlement of Syrian refugees to be stopped, or at least paused, citing "security concerns" in the wake of the recent attacks in Paris. 

The Syrian refugee crisis may be overshadowed by politics here, but it is front and center in the new English version of a popular Arabic radio soap opera featured earlier this year on The Takeaway.

BBC Radio in the UK is airing the drama, “Welcome to Zaatari,” this week, which is a fictional account of Syrian refugees living in a sprawling U.N. refugee camp in Jordan.

The Takeaway talks with Honey Al Sayed, a Syrian exile in Washington, D.C. who co-produced the original Arabic version of the radio drama with British filmmaker and journalist, Charlotte Eagar, who also worked as a consultant on the English version.