A GLASGOW charity leader who is delivering aid to refugees travelling through Serbia has described his “embarrassment” that they had yet to meet a single person who said they wanted to come to the UK.

Ross Galbraith, International Projects Leader of Glasgow the Caring City, said there was a general feeling amongst refugees that they were not welcome here.

He said the aid team, which this week included Glasgow SNP MSP James Dornan, had met hundreds of middle-eastern refugees including including doctors and lawyers who would be an “asset” to the UK but all were aiming to travel to Sweden and Germany.

Home Secretary Theresa May was widely criticised last week for the tone of her party conference speech on immigration where she said high migration made a “cohesive society” impossible.

Glasgow aid workers travelled out to SID, on the border of Serbia and Croatia, on Saturday ahead of a second shipment of vital aid from the city that arrived on Monday.

Mr Galbraith said the country had experienced “unprecedented” numbers of refugees arriving at the weekend.

The average has been 1000 each day but on Saturday some 8,500 people arrived. He said one man had been walking for 80 days in the same clothes with his children.

Most were ill-equipped for the increasingly cold weather.

Mr Galbraith also revealed that the Glasgow charity had been invited to the Serbian parliament in Belgrade yesterday to receive “commendation” for the work they are doing to help desperate refugees.

He said: “The Serbian people have showed a remarkable degree of compassion but they are going to get to a point where they can’t help.

“The average number passing through has been 1000 but on Saturday, 8,500 arrived. It’s a huge number of people.

“The people who are arriving, many of them were highly educated. Doctors and lawyers, people with masters degrees.

“They would be an asset to the UK but all of them were aiming to get to Sweden and Germany.

“We haven’t met a single person who said they wanted to come to the UK.

“It’s embarrassing and depressing to think that people are afraid to seek help here in times of disaster.

“Everyone we spoke to had a grasp of English. There was no threat of violence anywhere.

“I’ve been to refugee camps in Uganda and what is concerning for me is how unprepared they are. People are standing in light clothes freezing.

“There were people who had walked from Afghanistan with young children.

“One guy said he had been walking for 80 days. His children were standing in the same clothes.

“It has been bitterly cold. We had thermals on and we were freezing.

“There are people, intent on walking around Europe in flip flops.”

Refugees arriving in Serbia are ‘checked in’ and then bussed to Belgrade, where they can access funds. It is then decided which border they can cross, depending on numbers of people passing through.

Nineteen tonnes of goods, including winter clothing and hygiene kits, arrived in Novi Sad on Monday to be distributed by the charity and the Red Cross to refugees at local transit points and drop-in centres in Serbia.

The donations have been arriving at the charity from across Scotland over the past few weeks.

The charity has launched a crowd-funding initiative on Facebook to fund further trips and a third shipment of aid from Glasgow is planned.

Mr Galbraith said: “We need to re-finance what we are doing because more is needed.

“In terms of our own organisation, the message that’s coming through it that what we are delivering from Glasgow is exactly what they need.”

“The reality is that no external charity partners of scale, besides Red Cross, MSF, World Vision and a few other ‘super charities’ as I call them, are providing aid to assist refugees travelling through Serbia.

“So because of that, our support has become big news.

“We met with the Mayor and regional Prefect in Novi Sad. Today, we’ve been summoned to Belgrade to be presented to Parliament for commendation.

“Whilst in the city we will be looking at part-3 of our strategy; mother & child wellbeing.

“There will be a trip to ‘Kids Korner’ which supports mums and their children, as well as unaccompanied children making this epic journey on their own.

“ I’ve a feeling this will be emotionally hard day but that’s the job.”

To find out how you can help or to make a donation go to www.glasgowthecaringcity.com and follow the links