A traumatised young mother arriving at the crowded refugee centres of Lesbos was so shocked that she was unable to feed her crying baby, recounted a young Gozitan volunteer who worked in the “prison camps”.
“That’s how it is there. I remember this mother asking us for help,” Samuel Xerri, 21, told The Sunday Times of Malta.
“There’s almost no baby formula available, so we had to think on our feet. We mixed water in this powder meant for a six-month-old child until it was diluted enough to feed this woman’s newborn.”
The shop assistant from Xagħra recently returned from a five-week mission to the Greek refugee camps of Mytilini organised by international NGO Youth with a Mission.
The first Maltese to have visited the muddy camps – known for their closed detention centres – Mr Xerri said he felt an urge to reach out and help.
“I don’t want to make myself out to be some hero. I tried my best to help. Given the scale of the situation, I think that even just being there to assist in the slightest way is help,” he said.
Mr Xerri said the work he had done there ranged from handing out clothes to fixing water heaters and digging trenches for the installation of water pipes.
The worst experience, he said, was when he was helping new arrivals off a boat and a young man fell into his arms. “I tried to resuscitate him but I couldn’t.
“He didn’t wake up,” he said.
The space is limited – the 1,000-person site now hosts some 2,400.It’s not realistic to keep piling more people into these camps
Asked about the conditions on the ground, Mr Xerri said the detention camps were the worst part of the island.
“They have rooms meant for four people that are housing ‘families’ of 14 people and more. The space is limited – the 1,000-person site now hosts some 2,400. It’s not realistic to keep piling more people into these camps,” he said.
The stream of migrants into Greece has been termed a humanitarian crisis of historic proportions by Amnesty International. As thousands of refugees live in squalid conditions in basic tents, more migrants reach the island of Lesbos or are stranded in the desolate Idomeni camp in north.
An EU deal with Turkey has recently stemmed the flow. Most of the refugees have fled the unrelenting civil war in Syria, now in its sixth year.
Mr Xerri said he had never seen anything like it. “There is little water and almost no soap. There are no clothes and the smell is everywhere. The conditions are poor, and as more people flock to these camps, it becomes clearer that the infrastructure can’t cope,” he said.
The arrival of new boats was continuous during his time on Lesbos. With just 30 volunteers assisting a site for 2,000 people, Mr Xerri said that ensuring everyone had access to basic amenities was a struggle.
And, as conditions worsen, crammed quarters squeeze tighter, and the mixing of ethnicities makes the perfect recipe for heated tempers. “There were fights. I found myself in the middle of fights often.
“There are cultural differences – men who think it’s okay to hit women, for instance,” he said, adding that the worst fights quickly escalated into rock-flinging riots.