BBC America has signed on to adapt SBS Australia's Go Back to Where You Came From, a docuseries that follows participants on a "refugee journey in reverse."
In the SBS version that first aired last year, six Australians retraced their journeys back to their original homelands in an attempt to explore preconceived notions about immigration.
Deprived of their wallets, phones and passports,the group faced situations akin to those endured by actual refugees – boarding a leaky refugee boat, being rescued mid-ocean, experiencing immigration raids in Malaysia, living in a Kenyan refugee camp and visiting slums in Jordan, before ultimately making it to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, protected by UN Peacekeepers and the US military.
SBS Australia has also set deals with TV2 Denmark and Keshet Broadcasting for Israel, while Tuvalu Media, Studio Hamburg DocLights, Snowman Productions and Curious Pictures have all signed on for the option to produce local versions of Go Back in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and South Africa respectively, according to Variety.
With an American version in the works, we can only suspect that at least one or two people of African descent will be included among the participants. And the callback to how Africans "got here" should make for very interesting viewing.
Curious to see how this one turns out. In the mean time, catch a few clips from the Australian version below:
