Vasilis Tsartsanis was filming a music video near the Greek-Macedonian border in September 2014 when he noticed small groups of people trudging through the fields.

Confused over why families would be walking through “the middle of nowhere”, he asked them where they were from.

“Syria,” they replied. And where were they going? “To Europe.”

Vasilis, a hairdresser and part-time film maker, was mystified and returned to investigate why people were starting to journey through the sleepy area.

Migrants from Syria cross the railways at the border post of Idomeni at the Greece-Macedonia border on April 21 (AFP/Getty Images)

“I got in touch with the people and I realised something not normal was happening,” he told The Independent.

“People were in the middle of nowhere, winter was coming. Every day I went, I was seeing more and more people.”

What started as a trickle of refugees crossing from Greece to Macedonia on the way to western Europe would turn into a flood, with hundreds then thousands of people starting to pour through the previously unknown village of Idomeni every day.

It has since become one of the largest refugee camps in Europe, housing 15,000 people in squalid conditions until Greek authorities started clearing the area in May.

Btu the magnitude of the crisis to come was not foreseen over two years ago, when Vasilis found families hiding in fields without shelter, water or food.

He and his friends started gathering donations and delivering necessities when they could.

“We could not allow this to happen metres away from our houses, we had to do something,” he said. “The local people are a very conservative society but they started to support us. So we decided to take some donations and see what we could do.”

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

The small band of volunteers quickly realised the situation was growing beyond their meagre capabilities, once taking 300 sandwiches, only to be confronted by 500 asylum seekers waiting to cross the border.

Many were severely ill, with pregnant women and babies among the crowds, so Vasilis started to use his car as a makeshift ambulance ferrying refugees to friends’ houses and convincing local doctors to treat them without payment.

He quickly gained the trust of the new arrivals, who revealed they were being charged by smugglers exploiting the lack of authorities to leave Greece, then again by gangs over the border to enter Macedonia.

On one night in May 2015, Vasilis got a phone call from a refugee he had helped, saying they had been beaten by more than 100 mafia members inside Macedonia and fled back towards Greece.

“Everyone came back bleeding, we had to take 11 people straight to the hospital,” he said. “They stole the Syrians’ papers and passports.”

There were still no authorities and no charities on the ground at Idomeni, but the number kept on increasing as Vasilis and other locals gave what help they could to around 1,000 people arriving every day.

“We were using our own money, we weren’t getting any help from Europe,” he said. “We couldn’t continue any more, the numbers were too many.”

Migrant men help a fellow migrant man holding a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and migrants during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, (AFP/Getty)

Having alerted local authorities, politicians and NGOs to the dire situation, Vasilis was invited to speak at the European Parliament in April 2015.

He then went to media in the UK, France and US to invite journalists to document the growing scale of the “catastrophe”.

And they came, with the reports from May 2015 spurring action by Greek authorities and international aid agencies who moved into Idomeni.

But as the refugee crisis peaked, Serbia and Macedonia closed their borders and trapped thousands of people in what Vasilis called a “humanitarian catastrophe in the heart of Europe”.

Official clearances of the Idomeni camp started in May but refugees continue to arrive, despite a controversial deal struck between the EU and Turkey to stop boat crossings to Greece over the Aegean Sea.

Several migrants have been killed by freezing temperatures sweeping the continent so far this year, with thousands of refugees struggling to survive in tent camps and on the streets.

“It’s like we make them to feel worse than animals,” Vasilis said. “We would put dogs somewhere better.”

A migrant stands next to a snow-covered tent at the Moria detention camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on 7 January (AFP/Getty)

He still watches refugees passing through Idomeni almost every day, with some being rounded up in remote forests and taken back to Thessaloniki by police.

“Whoever has money is still able to pass illegally,” he added. “Inside the illegal passing will come the criminal passing and the radicalism.

“Let’s start to take people from Libya, from Egypt, from Syria. We need to know who is coming and where from.”

Vasilis fears the crisis and terror attacks are making Europe more conservative and susceptible to radicalism as it “lives under fear”.

But he is continuing to do what he can for the refugees of Idomeni, despite receiving no salary and turning down jobs at NGOs. “I’m still working with them, I’ll never stop, ” he said.

The hairdresser, whose work is supported by the Open Society Foundations, has travelled around Europe to meet some of his 20,000 contacts.

Many have sent messages of thanks from their destinations including the UK, Germany and Sweden.