The film "A Syrian beggar" appeared in a documentary in a major media scandal on the English channel BBC. The film, which deals with the story of a Syrian beggar in the streets of Istanbul, was later discovered to have been used by a Turkish woman to play the role of Syrian beggar. The film was published worldwide, and was deleted after it turned out that the beggar appearing in the film was only Turkish from the Harran region of Shanli Orfa state in southern Turkey and that she was begging, according to the Turkish daily Daily Sabah.
The film shows a lady covered with a face called "Fatima," said by the anchorwoman of the channel "Stacy Douley" that she fled from Aleppo to Turkey by smugglers of humans, and that the organization of Dahesh kidnapped her eldest daughter. She also claimed that Fatima did not find any support or assistance in Turkey, forcing her to beg.
The video also shows an altercation between the announcer Stacey Douley and some sellers in a market in the Akkari area because they did not allow her to shoot with the "Syrian refugee". "You treat her like that because she is Syria, this is unacceptable racist behavior," she said.
A salesman, Wesel Gul, said he was working for the market and the "Cherkessi", whose documentary has been filmed since he was five years old. He sees this woman for about 15 years and knows very well that she is from the Harran region of Shanli Orfa, Has been in the region for many years and speaks Arabic and Kurdish alongside Turkey.
"The Syrian refugee Fatima fled from Aleppo to Turkey illegally, so she does not have any papers to prove her identity. The channel was found by a Turkish person who helps the crew of the channel in Turkey," said Julia Rook, a BBC producer and documentary producer. The Turkish newspaper continued with the person who confirmed that he did not know the woman and did not know how the BBC channel reached her and that he only attended with them to do the translation.
The newspaper tried to connect with the BBC, which quickly removed the film from its website, without making any statement or comment.