Cases of sexual exploitation, human smuggling and involvement of pedophiles – revealed by volunteers and migrants in interviews with the Thomson Reuters Foundation – have prompted some charities and aid groups to call for background checks on new volunteers in largely unregulated situations.

For while criminal background checks are usually mandatory for people who work in charities or with children, the migrant crisis has sparked a wave of volunteers often acting on their own accord and with no oversight.

"We don't have enough organizations who know what they're doing," said British volunteer Sumita Shah, a manager in an accountancy body who has undergone training with British homeless charity Crisis.

Last month, she posted a six-page document offering guidance on safeguarding – a humanitarian aid term that denotes measures to protect vulnerable people – and on criminal background checks in an online group for volunteers on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Shah said volunteers have also supported some of the people-smuggling that has occurred.

Both volunteers and migrants at the recently demolished Calais Jungle camp in France told the Thomson Reuters Foundation about sexual relationships between a small number of those giving and receiving aid – something major humanitarian groups forbid in their codes of conduct.

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