AN ex-pat artist on the frontline of the refugee crisis arrived in Scotland yesterday to ask volunteers to join his aid effort in Greece.
Sculptor Eric Kempson settled on the island of Lesbos from England 16 years ago and now spends every day scanning the Aegean sea for boats laden with desperate refugees seeking sanctuary in Europe.
The narrow Mytilini strait separates Turkey from the Greek island by just six miles and more than 93,000 people have landed on its shores so far this year, making it the country’s busiest point for refugee arrivals.
Kempson, who works with wife Philippa and daughter Elleni, helps bring migrants to safety, giving them food, water and medical help and attending to miscarriages and newborns.
The former safari park worker says aid agencies are failing the thousands who land on the beach near his home and yesterday issued an urgent appeal for Scottish medics to help.
Already 53 people have signed up to volunteer through the charity Positive Action in Housing (PAIH) between now and March but Kempson, 60, aims to recruit 200.
Speaking in Glasgow yesterday, he recounted the tragedy unfolding on his doorstep, saying: “I am here to let the world know what’s going on in the island of Lesbos. A lot more needs to be done.
“Last Wednesday, we had a wooden boat collapse out at sea. In 60 seconds it went under.
“We had four groups of doctors surrounding four babies, working on them. Out of the four groups, one cheer went up – one made it. There were bodies everywhere. On Friday, 28 bodies washed up.
“We are getting hardly any help from the aid agencies, hardly any help from European governments.”
Criticising international charities and authorities, he added: “European governments are making it worse. They sink the boats and put them back where they left from.
“One family came in a week ago and said they had been put back three times. They had been sunk in the water.
“The Turkish coastguard is sinking the boats, picking the people up and putting them back on the beach.
“On Lesbos we have six [families] from the Greek Red Cross and I’m supplying them with blankets. Where the money’s going I don’t know.
“I am critical of aid agencies – I have lived with them for nine months and this has changed my views.
“They come in and take photographs, nothing comes back in. They can get away with it in
Africa and Bangladesh but they’re in Europe now and the spotlight is on them.
“The camps are disgraceful. There’s sewage running between the camps. Europe is meant to be civilised.”
Kempson went on: “I can’t step back as long as it is going on. I’ll be there until it’s past.”
Retired nurse Diane Fotheringham, from Glasgow, is among the Scots set to travel to Lesbos.
Fotheringham will spend three or four weeks on the island next month, setting out with law student daughter Ellen after the 24-year-old finishes her exams in mid-December.
She told The National: “I’m not looking forward to it, it’s not going to be nice, but I have skills that people need out there.
“I’m going to have to call in every bit of my knowledge and experience as a nurse and as a human being.
“I have dealt with terrible life crises with people so I have to draw on that. If it’s bad for me it can only be a tiny fraction of how bad it is to actually have to put your baby on one of those boats.”
Robina Qureshi, director of PAIH, said her charity will raise £50,000 for refugees in Lesbos.
She said: “We have the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War and our governments are doing nothing.
“The EU has failed to live up to its humanitarian obligations.”
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