Asylum seekers in UK by pictures…

Ngisti, 43, from Eritrea outside the house in south London where she stays. "I have no family, no papers, no work. I take tablets for depression because I can't sleep at night."

A tin of food heats on the stove in a Leeds squat where destitute failed asylum seekers live. The exhibition is at Host Gallery, Honduras Street, London until 4 April. All pictures: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos Pictures.

Abbie Trayler-Smith has photographed some of the 300,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been refused but who now live without support. Madelena, from Angola, arrived in 2007.

Alain, 34, sits in a subway in Walthamstow, London. A former TV journalist, he was arrested and tortured in his native DR Congo and has been living destitute in the UK since 2002.

Tamba, 20, who came from Liberia three years ago and has been sleeping rough. His parents were killed. "February 2005 was the last time I slept in a bed."

Monique, 32, originally from the DR Congo. From a comfortable family, she was detained and tortured after taking part in an anti-government demonstration in which some of her friends were killed.

Hamid, 28, from Iran, at a bus stop in north London. He spent three years living on buses, in parks and on the streets of London, using heroin to cope.

Geelaas, 57, from Kirkuk in Iraqi Kurdistan, in London's Hyde Park. She fled to the UK in 2003 after her husband was taken away by secret police. A writer, she had sometimes been critical of the government.

Boni, 43, still bears the scars of torture from his native DR Congo – he was knifed in the arm pit and chest, beaten and put into an electric chair on suspicion of being against the ruling government.

Thania, 20, from DR Congo, at London's Euston Station where she spent a year sleeping rough. She came to the UK in September 2004 claiming asylum after her family were murdered by Congolese soldiers.

Anne, 49, arrived from the DR Congo in 2002 and had her asylum claim rejected. Raped by rebel soldiers after she stood up to the use of child soldiers, she has also been raped in the UK.

BBC NEWS
20/03/09
pictures

In pictures: Still Human, Still Here