You would have thought that an aid worker based near the hellhole of Fallujah in Iraq would welcome a chance to expound on how the atrocities taking place around him have affected his outlook on life.

But Karl Schembri says he has no time to deal with any of that. Instead, he is focusing on getting the stories of the victims out – the men, women and children who fled the Isis-held city as it came under attack from Iraqi forces.

“I can’t stop and think about anything else. My top priority is getting these people’s stories out to the world. One deals with that later,” Mr Schembri said.

Mr Schembri, who works for the Norwegian Refugee Council, spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta about the urgency of raising awareness to the plight of those who managed to make it out of the city alive.

Every person he has met at the different camps around Fallujah has their own story to tell, he said.

Recently, he was shocked to learn what happened to a mother who had escaped Fallujah with her five children, all under the age of eight, the youngest a two-year-old boy.

“The woman and her kids had been walking through canals for days, chest-deep in water. As she was climbing out of the canal, she was shot at by a sniper.”

The bullet hit her in the shoulder, passed right through her and hit her baby boy.

“The two-year-old was killed on the spot, in his mother’s arms. She had to be treated at hospital so she was also separated from the other children.”

Mr Schembri recounted the mother’s pain at witnessing the brutal murder of her youngest child.

The bullet hit her in the shoulder, passed right through her and hit her baby boy

“At least she was later reunited with the other children, but you can imagine what she felt. Her baby was killed right in front of her as she held him.”

Many of the people trying to flee often become separated from their relatives, Mr Schembri said. The majority go for months without hearing any information on the whereabouts of their families.

He recalled another story, of a man in his fifties who lost contact with his wife and children as he tried to escape Fallujah.

“The family were hiding in a house when the man decided to run back home for some basic belongings. As he ran, there were air strikes and he could not get back to his family.”

The man was very distraught, especially as it seemed there was no way he could get any information about his family.

While some of the stories were beyond imagination, Mr Schembri said, others might seem less so at face value but would often stick with him just as much.

“I met this man, also in his 50s, who spoke to me about how he fled the nightmare that was unfolding at Fallujah, going for days without food, being forced to live in camps with over 1,000 displaced people.

“And yet when I asked him what he wanted to tell the world, he said ‘all we want to do is return home safely’. He spoke to me with so much dignity, it was a very special encounter.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council is working tirelessly to receive newly displaced civilians and providing them with emergency aid.

Tens of thousands of civilians were trapped inside the Isis stronghold as Iraqi forces and allied militias prepared to storm the city in May. The operation was to involve the Shia militias and the Iraqi army.

The civilians were forced to flee to the west, southwest and southeast of the city as the Iraqi forces and militias surrounded it. Two weeks after the operation was launched, the army secured the southern part of the city and the number of civilians inside Fallujah reached 90,000.

On June 18, the Iraqi Prime Minister declared victory over Isis in Fallujah. The fighting left more than 30,000 people displaced from the city, over and above the 32,000 who had already been uprooted before the battle got under way.