The ongoing refugee crisis continues to see human beings live in camps across Europe, often in abysmal situations, with muddy tents, wet blankets and shortages of food, toilets and health care.
Witnessing this is heart-wrenching enough for anyone, but reporting on the issue comes with its own challenges for journalists, who must produce objective and thorough reports whilst wanting to help those around them.
Simon Shuster, reporter for New York based magazine Time, has been covering the refugee crisis since last summer, traveling along parts of the refugee trail in countries such as Turkey, Serbia, Hungary and Germany.
Having just reported from the refugee camp of Idomeni in northern Greece, Shuster told Journalism.co.uk it was the worst he has seen throughout his experience of the crisis.
"It was quite shocking for me when I arrived there and saw the conditions – there were numerous scenes that were very painful to watch," said Shuster.
He recalls momentarily setting aside his reporting duties to help panicked refugees cross a dangerous river on their recent 16km march toward the Greece-Macedonia border from Idomeni.
Few dozen Greek police just tried and failed to block 100s of refugees breaking out of Idomeni. March continues pic.twitter.com/yzNAJ97eu8
— Simon Shuster (@shustry) March 14, 2016
"There was a point when we got to the other side [of the river] and the danger of this journey sunk in," he said.
"I was mostly switched into civilian mode and was helping people scramble up to the embankment and helping the kids who were being carried across. There were a lot of elderly and disabled people – three men in wheelchairs were carried across the river.
"There are these times in a reporting process when you have to consider 'what is my chief obligation here? Is it to report? Or do I need to take a moment to do the humanitarian thing that is necessary?'
"It is a constant assessment where you have to really stop and think."
In this case, Shuster was able to continue with his reporting after the river incident, interviewing people as he walked alongside the refugees, but in some cases the law has stopped him being able to help those he meets.
For example, he explains that Greek law stated at one time it was illegal to give refugees lifts, so he would see women and children walking the highways without being able to step in and offer a ride.
"These are the calls you have to make as a reporter,” said Shuster.
“There is that humanitarian temptation to help, which happens in many cases, which is fine as long as you are not violating the law and it doesn't take you away from your reporting duties."
Of course, by reporting on the refugee crisis, journalists are helping to give migrants an identity, helping to remove the perception that the crowds are an "unnamed threat" reaching European shores.
"Each of the people in this mass migration are human beings, they each have their own individual stories and have gone through any number of traumas back home," he said.
Watch Shuster’s video report from the Idomeni camp here.
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