GREEN MSP Ross Greer arrives at his party's election manifesto launch in Glasgow after a humanitarian visit to an Italian refugee camp, having heard about some of the most harrowing experiences imaginable at the so-called ‘door of Europe’.

Since being elected as the Scottish Parliament's youngest MSP at the age of 21 last May, Greer has established a profile that probably makes him the most recognisable Scottish Green politician after party co-convenor Patrick Harvie.

"You see the best and worst of all humanity", Greer says as he tells of the accounts he heard at the refugee camps in the islands of Lampedusa and Sicily.

He talks about the "genuine compassion" of those offering support to the victims of "horror stories" including young women who have been trafficked and raped.

Sitting in Glasgow Women's Library after the manifesto launch, the West of Scotland MSP who is a committed Christian, says: "For me my faith shapes the values I have".

Greer, a member of Bearsden Cross kirk, was part of a five-day fact finding mission by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland to hear first hand testimony from refugees in camps on the two islands.

The MSP speaks movingly about the stories of suffering and degradation he heard from refugees, who were duped into prostitution, raped and who witnessed deaths on a huge scale.

Talking about the support offered to refugees by people living close by as well as that by volunteers, he says: "You see the best and worst of all humanity. You see the amazing response of local communities.

"They are responding with as much humanity and compassion as possible. There's the local Catholic church and community groups in the local municipality. I even saw a local catering truck just as it was finishing up for the night going up to groups of young refugees sitting on the docks and giving out some food and drinks and stuff. They just showed genuine compassion.

He continues, "But at the same time everyone you spoke to had a different horror story to tell. There was a 17-year-old girl who was raped and forced into prostitution, kidnapped in Libya. Someone who had essentially been duped and put on this journey from Nigeria to Libya.

"Once they reached Libya they were told that was Europe and they had no frame of reference to know otherwise. A really tragic situation.

"Another one was on a boat that managed to get into international waters and then started sinking. He watched his friends drown as they just fell off the boat and were sucked under by currents."

There was one common theme in the lives of all the people he met, he says "that they'd been kidnapped at least once while they were in Libya.

"We also met a man who was present in October 2013 at major disaster on a boat of 500 people. The boat caught fire and capsized, so 300 people drowned that day out of 500."

But for all his religious faith Greer believes the crisis is a political one, saying: "What you also see in the absolute tragic failure of European governments to deal with this," by not taking in enough refugees. "These people are dying because European governments are not doing enough."

However, Greer, whose faith, he says, is "inextricably linked" to his politics, claimed an independent Scotland would play a leading role in responding to the refugee crisis .

"The discourse in Scotland around refugees and immigration is simply different to the UK discourse, by which I mean that of Westminster and certain sections of the media.

"In Scotland it's different, the Scottish Government and civil society say they are ready to take in more people. We could do so much more.

"The trouble is we don't have the relevant powers over immigration and refugee policy. With independence we'd be able to play a far more compassionate role in Europe's response to that crisis. Instead of making it worse we'd actually be able to help respond to that crisis."

Since his election last May, it's fair to say Greer has played a prominent role in the enhanced Green group at Holyrood which increased from two to six MSPs.

The young activist, who cut his political teeth working for Yes Scotland, is viewed as a major asset by the Greens and would almost certainly play a prominent role in any fresh independence campaign.

The West of Scotland MSP is adamant that he wants to stay in politics and that for now it's the best calling and most effective way of advancing his values.

However, he says that becoming a Kirk minister some years after a vote for independence could be an "option" for him.

In what would be an unprecedented move for an elected parliamentarian to leave politics for the church, Greer vows he would only consider the change after he had the chance to serve as an MSP in an independent Scotland.

He says: "People in my church, they joke all the time that I should be a minister, but I believe I can do more good and that there's more I can contribute and correspond to my faith by being an MSP now.

"Maybe there will be a point in my life where I think that is what I want to do. In the ministry they talk about a calling – it's something in my life I want to go out there and do.

"I'm aware that it's an option. It's an option some people in my church have urged me to take. There may be another point in my life where that is the thing that I should be doing and drawn towards."

He goes on, "What really excites me I'd like to have the opportunity to be a member of the first parliament in an independent Scotland.

"So I probably would not think that once we'd won independence that was me finished with that part of my life because the opportunity of having those first four or five years would be tremendous.

"Having that Green voice when you are writing a constitution, with Scotland taking its place at the international table and the UN would be immense. I'd very much like to be part of that, but that depends entirely on the electorate."

But for now Greer sees the struggle for independence as the big battle to fight.

"I would never suggest that the Christian thing to do is to vote for or against independence," he says earnestly."If I was forced to choose, I would choose my faith.

"But I don't believe it is a choice between the two. I think my politics is entirely in keeping with my faith."

There have been advantages and disadvantages, he says, to being the youngest MSP, arguing that it has been good for his profile, but has led to him being pigeonholed as the MSP who speaks on youth issues.

"It's a bit like, 'Oh Ross knows what young people think'. 'Ross is closer to being a teenager.' 'Ross is the youngest MSP.'

But there was one incident in particular that stands out for Greer, when he says a Tory MSP insulted him as a “child” during a Holyrood debate after he had claimed the UK government policy was leading to the deaths of refugees.

He recalls that "we were celebrating the 1,000th Syrian refugee to come to Scotland. I was very forthright about the result of Conservative policies at Westminster, and I said to them for all they pretend to be a softer more progressive party in the Scottish Parliament every Conservative MSP is a card carrying member of a party whose policies have resulted directly in the death of refugees.

"The response to me saying that was a Conservative member, who shall remain unnamed, hollering over at me that I was a child – just a child. We had other MSPs looking over shocked. I just carried on.

"Not a single Conservative member was willing to intervene and challenge these points I was making. It was an attempt to patronise me rather than attempt to deal with the argument," he said. "It didn't irritate me as it's because they are ashamed of own party's position, so they attacked me personally. They know they can't defend their own policy.

"Maybe it's a personality flaw," he adds "but I think thrive a little bit on that. The fact that I had annoyed them to that extent made me feel quite good."

But with 'indyref2' looming, it seems likely that Greer – whatever the unnamed Tory MSP thinks of him and whatever spiritual calling he may have in the future – will be a significant player in the independence debate for some time to come.