Thousands of migrants living in tents at the Greek-Macedonian border are being manipulated by smugglers, but they do not trust the authorities either, according to a Maltese asylum expert who recently returned from a visit there.

Jean Paul Schembri, from the European Asylum Support Office, yesterday told the Times of Malta that the infamous Idomeni camp, photos of which have dominated the international media lately, was rampant with rumours of covert ways into Europe.

The rumours, he said, were mostly being fuelled by gangs of smugglers who were “organised and audacious”.

“These smugglers and traffickers even hand out pamphlets with instructions and details of crossings written in Arabic. Then they get groups of migrants to risk crossing a river, only to find the authorities waiting to take them back across, if they even make it,” he said.

Mr Schembri was speaking fresh from a visit to the Greek border, where he and other Maltese have been helping migrants apply for protection through the established legal channels, and is expected to return in the coming days.

He said that on top of migrants being used by smugglers, large swathes of the asylum seekers did not trust the officials offering legal routes into Europe either.

“Building and maintaining trust is one of our main challenges. This is how tenuous the situation is. We’ve had instances where we’ve been in the process of relocating migrants and they won’t trust us until they actually get into the airport and see they aren’t being tricked,” Mr Schembri said.

It is literally just large fields with people setting up tents and living in the mud

He was quick to acknowledge that many migrants were let down by authorities on their journey to Europe, something which was difficult to reverse.

Some 50,000 refugees and mi-grants are in Greece awaiting the implementation of a new EU-Turkey migration deal meant to help ease the pressure that has been piling onto countries on Europe’s eastern frontier.

However, as EU leaders hash out the nitty-gritty of a plan which will see thousands of refugees spread across several member states, Mr Schembri said the numbers were not subsiding.

“Migrants aren’t leaving Ido-meni; more are coming and those already there are waiting, hoping things will change or that they will be smuggled across to their ultimate destination.

“But, the only way they can get anywhere is by going through the legal route. They need to acknowledge this,” he said. Asked about the state of affairs in Idomeni, Mr Schembri said it was desolate.

“The conditions are terrible, I mean it is literally just large fields with people setting up tents and living in the mud. Some are right up against train tracks, others are living in disused train carriages with little supplies and no running water,” Mr Schembri said.

Media reports of the conditions there have featured newborn babies being washed in rainwater, limited food and inadequate medical aid.

And it is not only in Idomeni. Just a few kilometres along the highway to Thessaloniki, the mood is similar among the refugees and migrants who live in tents near petrol stations and along busy roads.

Mr Schembri acknowledges that the official camps are “no five-star hotels”, but at least they are legal and secure and, right now, the only way out of desolation.