An Italian doctor, who has been working on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa for over 25 years, says that he still afraid of what he will find every time a new boat load of refugees arrives.
Lampedusa is one of the so-called hotspots for the European refugee crisis, due to its close proximity to the Tunisian coast, and doctor Pietro Bartolo is originally from the island.
He has released a book about his time spent caring for refugees arriving in dinghies from the African coast to the Mediterranean island.
He told French newspaper Le Figaro that it was his job to analyse the bodies, scars, and wounds. He even had to saw the leg off a dead refugee's body recently as police wanted to perform a DNA check.
"These memories haunt me," he said, but keeps track of everything on a USB stick, and writes to not forget.
"One never gets used to dead children, women who died after giving birth during the sinking, their babies still attached to them by the umbilical cord," Bartolo writes.
In his interview with the French newspaper, he said that even after all these years, his first reaction when he is told another boat has arrived is to be afraid. Bartolo explained: "I am scared. Still, even after all these years. I ask, 'How many are there, how many children are there, how are they?' When I am told that there are deaths, it is terrible."
He tells of many of the horrors he encounters on a daily basis, including seeing the scars of refugees who sold organs to pay smugglers for the crossing. One of the worst days for him was October 3, 2013, when 368 refugees were found dead in a single day.
But among all the anguish, one positive story stayed in his mind. On that day, when the second boat came ashore, there were 19 survivors and four dead aboard.
He managed to save one of the women on the boat after giving her a heart massage. Her lungs were full of water and gasoline, and she was taken to a hospital in Sicily and survived. She escaped from the hospital after a month and fled to Sweden where she still lives. And he has seen her again since.
"Since then, October 3, has become a remembrance day for us. And last year, she came to the rally organised that day in Lampedusa. She appeared in front of me, hugged me very hard and said, 'I am Kebrat.' Her rescue gave me such emotion in the midst of so much suffering"
Thousands of migrants have passed through Lampedusa, and since the Balkan route was shut off and a deal struck between the EU and Turkey, more refugees are again trying to access Europe through Italy.
Bartolo says that still today, boats arrive almost on a daily basis, but that the 5,500 inhabitants of the island don't complain, and even try to help when they can.
Since January 2017, over 15,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea, and 522 died or went missing in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe.
