On Wednesday evening, students in Cambridge gathered to discuss the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, and learn about the charities working to resolve the issue.

‘Keeping Hope Alive: Refugee Relief in Greece’, organised by Student Life Cambridge for members of both Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge Universities, hosted speaker Sarah Patel, who shared her experienced of administrating aid within Greece as part of her work with the charity Global Aid Network (GAiN). As a worldwide humanitarian relief and development organisation, GAiN operates in 50 countries from 11 different offices.

Patel explained that the charity’s fundamental purpose was to “help with heart and hand”. Aid, she said, meant to “give unconditionally.” She stressed the importance of the network of charities of which GAiN is a part, which enables the charity to benefit from the help of experts who have been there “much longer than them”.

Focusing on her recent trip with GAiN to a camp in Greece, Patel stressed the need for continued awareness and public interest in the arrival of refugees to Europe, despite the issue “not being in the news headlines anymore.” Patel citied the findings of the International Organisation for Migration, which showed that 140,538 migrants had arrived into Europe by sea so far in 2017 – 1 in 6 of whom were children. Between January to August 2017, 2,410 of these arrivals had been reported dead or missing. Patel also pointed to an increase in the number of unaccompanied or separated children arriving in Europe.

The talk went on to consider how the increasing number of refugees has impacted humanitarian relief. Patel described the condition of refugee camps in which she had volunteered, which are currently suffering from a shortage of humanitarian funding. Of primary concern is the condition of the reception centres, which Patel said were experiencing significant overcrowding. Patel said that, in one Greek camp, 5500 people were accommodated in a space designed for 800. She continued to say that accommodation was often very basic, with families housed in tents or large marquees divided by blankets.

Running throughout the talk was a consideration of what hope meant for refugees. Patel was volunteering near the Greek border in 2016 when it became apparent that European borders would be closing, or restricting access, to refugees. She spoke of the “hope that [the refugees] held on to.” She compared these experiences to the present-day situation, when decreasing aid funds and NGO relocation meant that it was easier to “become a lot less hopeful”.