In Moria refugee camp, children peer through a metal fence, out towards an elusive future.

In this former military camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, 6000 asylum seekers are locked in limbo, reduced from people to a problem.

Three years ago, when I made an unauthorised visit to the camp , I found families sleeping on rags in the dirt, exhausted and injured refugees, wandering, bewildered.

An unprecedented influx of people had taken the precarious smuggling route in rubber dinghies, across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the shores of Lesbos and neighbouring islands.

Syrians were contained in the relatively civilised camp of Kara Tepe two miles away, while the “others” from Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa were thrown into the skid row of Moria, creating an apartheid of the favoured and forsaken.

An Afghan woman gives her child a bath at the Moria refugee camp
Refugees wait in line for food

Now an overspill of Syrians are also placed in Moria and this excuse for a sanctuary is stretched to three times its intended capacity.

It has been thrown together from shipping containers, tents, and improvised shelters of wooden pallets and tarpaulins.

Residents complain of poor food, power failures, disease and lack of medical care as they wait for transfer to the ­mainland and less temporary legal status.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey signed a ­controversial deal to prevent ­refugees and migrants from reaching Europe.

Under the agreement, Greece forces asylum seekers to stay on the islands instead of being able to request asylum elsewhere in Europe.

In April alone, 1173 migrants reached the islands of Lesbos, Samos and Chios. There have been 5330 since the beginning of the year.

Some have been in the camp since the EU-Turkey deal was signed, ­trapping them in uncertainty and a monotonous routine of making do.

The refugees queue for everything – to use the handful of bathrooms, water for washing, to be issued with bland rations of rice and beans.

Our report three years ago
The camp three years ago
A refugee takes a bag of hot beans and rice

They can leave the camp but there is nowhere to go, with no money and a lukewarm welcome on a small island fatigued by bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis.

In November, Lesbos mayor Spyros Galinos warned the island and other border areas were turning into “concentration camps”.

In a recent report, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned refugees and asylum seekers were in the midst of a mental health emergency.

Many have lived through extreme violence and trauma, some fleeing wars in which the UK and Europe are most certainly culpable.

MSF say the conditions in Greece are compounding their suffering.

The report showed 80 per cent of new mental health patients treated in their Lesbos clinic reported having experienced violence. Just over a quarter had suffered torture and one in five sexual violence.

MSF medical coordinator Declan Barry said Moria is “both unsafe and wholly unhealthy”.

A Syrian refugee gives another one a haircut
An African refugee jumps a fence while playing soccer

He added: “Every day we treat hygiene-related conditions such as vomiting and diarrhoea, skin ­infections and infectious diseases.

“We must then return these people to the same risky living conditions. It’s an unbearable vicious circle.”

Last year, bubbling tensions in Moria resulted in a riot, after which MSF had to treat 14 injured people.

Brawls have become common place as hope is usurped by anger.

When I returned from Moria, I called it our “collective shame”. Three years on, we are disappointingly far from redemption.