Salam Aldeen has made it his mission to improve the lives of child refugees at the Moria camp

Eyes glued to the screen, mouths wide open, they watch the final scene of the Disney film Aladdin.

When the movie ends, the faces of nearly 500 children turn gloomy and tears fall down their cheeks. They come from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, and the time has come for them to return to their tents and metal containers in the squalid Moria camp on Lesbos. No one is getting out of here on a magic carpet.

Dozens of the 3,000 minors here have attempted suicide because of overcrowding, squalor and their hopeless situation. But one man is trying to make things a little better for the children abandoned on Europe’s doorstep.

Moved by the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who made global headlines when his lifeless body was pictured lying face down on a Turkish beach, Salam Aldeen headed to Lesbos three years ago and dedicated his life to migrants.

In a warehouse 200 metres from the camp, the Iraqi-Danish founder of the aid group Team Humanity constructed a playground, with inflatable castles and a small football pitch.

Several hundred children arrive at 4pm, holding hands.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Salam Aldeen, the founder of Team Humanity, with children at the camp on Lesbos. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

“It was difficult for the children to leave behind what they were experiencing in the camp,’’ says Aldeen, who has recruited volunteers among the refugees in Moria. “They’d watch their Syrian parents quarrel with their Afghan neighbours, and they’d bring the same tensions into the playground.

“We worked hard to try and convince them that in here, just as in the camp, we’re all the same: no colours, no religions, just human beings. And you know what? They understood it better than the adults.”

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In the evening, the volunteers set up a large screen where cartoons and films for children are shown in Arabic or Farsi. These are the final moments of peace for the children, who know that soon they will have to return to the camp, where the air is foul because rubbish is scattered everywhere and mothers sleep with knives under their pillows to defend themselves from rape.

Ayat Abuznade, a 31-year-old Palestinian doctor who often visits Lesbos to volunteer, says the venture has given the children hope. “I saw hope and happiness begin to light up in these children’s eyes,” she said. “Day to day, I experienced children just being normal children, without any worry or fear showing in their eyes. This centre gives these children suffering hope and somewhat of a temporary normal life.”

Aldeen has also devoted himself to saving migrants on the perilous journey to Europe. His name has become known across the Middle East, spoken of by people in destroyed homes in Mosul or at camps in Syria and Jordan.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Children at the playground built by Aldeen’s charity. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

In January 2016, he was arrested in Greece and accused of aiding illegal immigration because, according to the authorities, one day he went too close to the Turkish waters to search for two sinking migrant boats.

He spent 48 hours in jail but faced a trial that lasted two years. He was acquitted of all charges in May 2018 and eventually resumed his work.

A few weeks later, a Danish businessman asked him what he would do with a sizeable donation. “I’d build a playground,’’ he said. “A place where the children of Lesbos could go back to being kids.”

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