 The law centre provides advice and support for asylum seekers |
The off-white brick building on the corner of a small shopping street near Cardiff city centre used to be a bank branch, and looks very much as if it still is. But for foreigners desperate to claim asylum in the UK, this unassuming office, now the base for the Cardiff Law Centre, could make the difference between a new start or being sent back to a country where their lives are at risk.
Hearing tales of suffering is all in a day's work for the immigration team working at the centre.
Sarah Sugden, the supervisor for immigration, said it was vital to try to keep her emotions under control in order to be able to help people properly.
 |  The client lives off nothing virtually, lives in squalor, can't work  |
Clients arrive for help from a number of channels - they could be referred through an agency such as the Welsh Refugee Council, or sometimes directly from the police. In some cases, people will call unannounced at the office looking for assistance.
"We bring the client in, take instructions and find out the basis of the claim," explained Ms Sugden.
"We then contact immigration services if they haven't been contacted already.
"They arrange a screening interview, because they won't take written claims anymore - we used to be able to send claims through the post.
| Asylum seekers in Wales Wales total: 2,200 1,200 in Cardiff 700 in Swansea 200 in Newport 51 in Wrexham (before Caia park riots) |
"Now they have to screen the client and conduct a bio-data interview, which basically verifies who they are. "They take fingerprints and photographs and put them on the police national computer, so they can be checked wherever they are.
"They then give us a statement of evidence form (SEF), a self-completion questionnaire, which is a detailed analysis of their claim.
"We fill in the questionnaire with them, and then sit and wait for an interview in either Croydon or Liverpool where they go through the whole SEF with them and basically try to catch them out.
| Supervisor Sarah Sugden and case worker Yasin Ekmen |
"Then you wait for the Home Office to make a decision and we act relevantly on that."
The claimant's life remains on hold while the decision is being made, according to Ms Sugden.
"The client lives off nothing virtually, lives in squalor, can't work.
"If they had been in the country for six months and there hadn't been a decision, they used to have an entitlement to work. The new immigration and asylum act has revoked that entitlement, so there's no more working.
"So they literally sit down with their �37.50 or whatever it is per week and do nothing."
The Home Office's decision will either mean celebrations for the claimant and the team, or an appeal against deportation.
'Unbreakable'
The money to pay for the immigration team comes from the legal services commission, which is publicly funded.
Most asylum seekers are able to qualify for free legal help.
Ms Sugden explained: "They normally sell up everything to pay their fare to come to Britain.
"It's very rare that they come over with sufficient funds for themselves - if they did, they'd have to pay privately for practice.
"If not, they come to people like us for legal help."
Ms Sugden is concerned that their service could be under threat.
| Asylum seekers, when they get granted asylum, fill up the jobs that British people quite simply won't do |
"It was a scary moment when France managed to get rid of Sangatte (the asylum camp near Calais). "There was the security that the [Geneva] convention [on refugees] was unbreakable, but now France is trying to get out of asylum by the look of it," she said.
"If France succeeds in getting rid of asylum in their country, then any signatory country could do so.
"I know the government wants to get rid of asylum but I don't think they could, because the revenue from asylum in this country is colossal.
"Asylum seekers, when they get granted asylum, fill up the jobs that British people quite simply won't do.
"If they get rid of asylum, everyone's going to feel it."
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