York women return from refugee camps

Jean Garner-Steel and Katie Sammons, from Dringhouses, travelled with Lee Batty, from Scarborough, to a camp on the border of Austria and Hungary, and helped distribute toiletries, clothing and food they had collected from friends, family, schools, churches and the community.

The pair who both have children at Knavesmire and Millthorpe schools are now planning their next trip and have set up a Facebook page - Friends Helping Refugees - and a website - friendshelpingrefugees.org - to share their experiences, and give details on how people can donate or get involved.

Jean, 33, said: "When we saw so much press about people helping in Calais and watched that situation for a while, we thought it might be the place for us to be. But there's so much good work and support there, we thought we would look a bit further out to a place that's a bit more desperate, that wasn't getting as much attention."

The camp where Katie and Jean helped

Katie, who is 39, said: "It's more of a transit point so families are arriving on trains from Hungary and it's more of a place where they are just coming through.

"People and families and young children are all very exhausted who had just arrived in the west of Europe, full of hope and expectancy and they don't really know what's coming next."

Jean said: "The people are in transit, only stay a night or two so a much different feeling from the Jungle. We definitely noticed people are working together and very hopeful.

"They've just made it though Hungary, which is quite a hostile scene right now. When they come through and ask 'are we still in Hungary' and we told them they're in Austria, you can see the relief wash over their faces knowing they are in a country that's more welcoming to them."

Jean said: "We're starting the process over now, looking and watching to see where we can help next. Trying to put faces and voices to the people you hear about in the media."

"We're also putting together presentation to take to community groups. We're very happy to come round and talk about it. We've done it at Knavesmire School, who've been very supportive of the whole thing."

Among the people they met was Nour Eldin, a 24-year-old from Syria who left Damascus to try and reach Europe. His parents arranged for him to go to Turkey to avoid being forced into military service.

He said: "It's like living in a big prison, surrounded by bombs and shooting, dangerous to move around. I had to leave, like many of the other guys my age, because men aged 18-25 are forced by the government to do military service. They send you directly to the front line, very few come back. My parents knew if I stayed I would probably be killed in the war. I am their only son."

Nour said life in Turkey was "hard and unaccepting", so he tried to take a boat to Greece.

He said: "The smugglers are liars and thieves, they ask for $1,300 per person and you have to pay to reserve a space on a boat. If something goes wrong they don't give you the money back. I tried three times, one time the boat sank but I was lucky and survived. Finally the third time I made it across."

On arrival, everyone on the boat was detained by the authorities for ten days. Nour said "I don't count these days as part of my life because we suffered too much there".

When he was released, he made it to Athens, caught a bus to Macedonia, walked 10km and joined thousands more at the train station, where he travelled to the Serbian border.

He said: "Here we found more smugglers. €300 per person to cross the border, then again €350 to cross into Hungary. Finally we made it to Budapest where we took a train to the Austrian border and then they took us from there to Vienna. It was a long road to get here. We were tired and had suffered but now we were safe. Our plan had been to travel on to Belgium but when we saw how kind and generous and friendly the Austrian people are we decided to stay here. We now live in a small hostel in Nickelsdorf and we are waiting for our asylum papers. There are 25 of us here.

"I wish I could thank every single person who has supported and helped us. Every day we come to the warehouse and help sort the clothes and supplies that so many people have donated. We want to help as much as we can. Help the people who have helped us. It is the least we can do. This is our small way of saying thank you. I miss my family desperately but we are lucky to speak every day. A day without hearing their voices is not a real day for me. One day I will return to Syria, to my family, to my home."