I thought i'd signpost you to a great blog about some of the people i work with every day, its called http://www.lifewithoutpapers.co.uk/ This blog is not an easy read, it tells the stories about the daily struggles and vulnerabilities of this often forgotten and neglected group
Undocumented migrants have nothing. They are not allowed to work. They have no right to state benefits nor to a place to live. They are unseen and potentially the most vulnerable group in the UK today.
Undocumented (or irregular) migrants include those trafficked into the sex trade or for domestic servitude; they include visa overstayers; those whose asylum applications have been refused and others who have been subject to failures in the immigration system. All of these may originally have come to the UK legally.
‘Illegal immigrants’ – those imagined to have entered the country in the backs of lorries – make up a small proportion of the undocumented.
Indeed some sources suggest that half the estimated 120,000 undocumented children in the UK were actually born here to undocumented parents. These children are disadvantaged from birth, solely by their immigration status. Written by photographer and writer Len Grant, the subjects of the stories have been introduced through agencies or charities that work with destitute migrants.
