Babies screamed as BBC sprayed Rohingya refugees with filth for Our Girl
Crew and cast members of Our Girl were horrified at treatment of refugees in Myanmar who had to re-enact horrific scenes which saw them forced from their homes.
HIT BBC Army drama Our Girl hired refugees as extras on just £33 a day — then got them to relive their horrific ordeals, it has emerged.
Some were sprayed with an industrial gun to make them look “filthy” before they waded through a river with terrified babies and children screaming for real.
Crew and cast members including star Michelle Keegan, 30, were furious at the treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, described as “one of the most persecuted minorities in the world”.
Around 100 were picked for episodes in the next series of the BBC1 show filmed in Malaysia, which borders their war-torn home nation of Myanmar.
More than 60,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Malaysia where they live in impoverished circumstances as UN-registered refugees.
The Beeb was last night accused of exploiting the refugees, with one suffering a seizure on set and requiring hospital treatment.
Almost a million flee persecution
AROUND 900,000 persecuted Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh while about 60,000 sailed to Malaysia.
Amnesty International say security forces have carried out a “campaign of widespread, systematic murder, rape and burning”.
The government of Myanmar — a predominantly Buddhist country led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi — claims the Rohingya are illegal immigrants.
A source said: “Lots of the cast and crew were upset about the treatment of the Rohingya and they raised it with bosses.
“Michelle was one of those who was concerned. These refugees are extremely vulnerable and nobody could fail to be moved by their plight.”
The source went on: “Licence fee-payers will also be horrified that real-life refugees were exploited for the purposes of entertainment.
"Viewers would expect higher standards from the BBC — especially as the corporation has produced a series of news reports on the crisis.”
One traumatised mother yesterday said she was paid just £33 a day by the BBC to relive her ordeal on set — and said filming a scene where they cross a rapid river was “torture”.
Habibah Abdullah, 23, who spent 15 days at sea escaping Myanmar in a rickety boat, said of the filming: “I can’t swim and I was holding on to my two-year-old daughter.
“We were in fast-moving water and I was terrified. It took hours to do the scenes and we had to go into the water again and again.
“Babies were crying and children all around me were screaming ‘mummy, mummy’.
"It was a really hot day and one man collapsed in the water. Some of the refugees broke down crying. Others said they wouldn’t come back after that experience.
“Some of the extras were covered with dirt for the scenes by production staff.”
Habibah said they did not complain at the time due to their financial plight.
She said: “Everybody was reliving personal nightmares and it was very difficult for us but we had to go through it all because we need the money.
“We are accustomed to hardship and if that is what we have to go through to earn money to feed our families, of course we will do it.”
Another refugee, Mubarak Bindi, 22, saw her home village razed to the ground before she escaped to Malaysia.
She told of her anguish after producers placed her in a replica of the refugee camp she was forced to flee to.
Mubarak recalled: “My heart sank when I saw the film set. It reminded me of where I had to live after my village was burned down.
"It brought back all the terrible feelings of that time. I felt very upset.”.
The BBC used local fixers to round up around 100 refugees as extras on the new episodes, which are due to be screened in April.
They were collected by bus at 5am from their homes in a run-down suburb of Kuala Lumpur before working 12-hour days on set for £33.
One, Yusof Bin Abdul Hakim, 46, whose brother and his seven children have been held for years at a camp in Myanmar, said the river scene was particularly harrowing.
He said: “It made me think of my brother and his family. I was very upset and so were many others.
“A lot of the people there only recently experienced life in a refugee camp and it brought all of those nightmares back to them.”
Former Corrie star Michelle Keegan — who posed for selfies with the refugees — plays Army medic Georgie Lane in the BBC1 drama, which has attracted audiences of up to seven million viewers.
The plot sees officers at British Army 2 Section, stationed in Bangladesh, uncover corruption, rape and child prostitution.
Filming for the latest series took place in South Africa and Malaysia at the end of last year.
The Sun on Sunday can also reveal the cast were furious with BBC bosses over the conditions they were forced to endure.
One scene filmed on a real rubbish dump in Kuala Lumpur involved them having to dig graves for refugees in piles of waste.
There was also a spate of thefts of personal items — including cash — from the set.
A local medic on set “froze” before she was taken to hospital.
The BBC insisted last night that the refugees were paid the standard local rate.
A spokesman said: “The storyline was conceived to shine a light on the plight of the Rohingya.
“All the supporting artists were contracted in the normal manner and at rates standard for work in Malaysia, including some Rohingya refugees living in Malaysia.
“At no point were any of the artists asked to do anything that would compromise their safety and their welfare was of paramount importance to us.
“One of the Rohingya supporting artists was seen by an on-set medic and taken to hospital with the producer.
"Filming stopped to allow this to happen and there is no footage of the event in the programme.”
Babies screamed as BBC sprayed Rohingya refugees with filth for Our Girl.HIT BBC Army drama Our Girl hired refugees as extras on just £33 a day — then got them to relive their horrific ordeals, it has emerged.Some were sprayed with an industrial gun to make them look “filthy” before they waded through a river with terrified babies and children screaming for real.Crew and cast members including star Michelle Keegan, 30, were furious at the treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, described as “one of the most persecuted minorities in the world”.
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