Volunteers claim those in hiding fear torture

People who work with the immigrants say they are in hiding because they believe they will be killed if they are sent back to the countries they have fled.

The Welsh Refugee Conference will meet in Cardiff on Thursday to discuss the problem.

One asylum seeker, in his 30s and from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has spent the past four weeks on the streets of Swansea.

There are many asylum seekers that we don't know about Volunteer Sylvie Hofman

"I sleep in the cabin of the telephone kiosk and it is very, very cold," he said.

"The refugee official gave me two blankets. "No food, no tea, I sleep out."

A volunteer worker told BBC Wales she believed there were as many as 200 asylum seekers sleeping on the streets of south Wales.

"In Swansea at the moment there are about 20 people, mostly from west Africa but there are many that we don't know about, " said Sylvie Hofman, Welsh Refugee Council Swansea.

Those in hiding, it is claimed, fear torture and death if they return home and hope they will be forgotten by the immigration authorities.

If they want to kill me they will have to kill me here in the UK Asylum seeker

Ms Hofman says the asylum seekers are encouraged to register with the police at regular intervals.

"If you don't go and sign you become a suspect then the police will start looking for you under the Anti Terrorism Act.

"But if you do go and sign on you can also be picked up so its a double-edged thing.

"However, it is better to go and sign on and not to be looked for."

The asylum seeker in Swansea, who did not want to be identified, has been in Britain for two years and left a wife and three children in DR Congo.

He says will be killed if he returns to the country.

"If they want to kill me they will have to kill me here in the UK and then send my corpse to the Congo.

"There is no way I can go alive to the Congo.

"I do not want to face again what I had to face."