HUNDREDS of refugee women in Scotland are facing "inhumane and unacceptable" exploitation, including being forced into prostitution and domestic servitude, leaving them despairing and suicidal.

The British Red Cross is now warning that refugee destitution is an "emerging humanitarian crisis" in the UK.

A group of eight destitute women from countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Gambia and Pakistan, all reporting regularly to the Home Office and being supported by Maryhill Integration Network and other charities in Glasgow, spoke to the Sunday Herald about "living outside of humanity" as a result of the UK Government's policy of making refused asylum seekers destitute, homeless and without resource to public funds or services.

They reported that women sold sex in order to survive, and several spoke of exchanging unpaid domestic labour - providing childcare and housework - in return for somewhere to stay.

Some were unable to access health care and one had pulled out her own tooth because she could not access a dentist. Several said GPs threatened to strike them off because they have no fixed address.

One woman, who is 63 and diabetic, said she regularly considers taking her own life - a thought shared by several women we spoke to. Another aged 67, has had to move every five or six days for many months. One woman, from Pakistan, had been released from Dungavel Detention Centre after two months without accommodation or support.

Another is six months pregnant but forced to sleep on the floors and couches of friends and rely on hand-outs from charities and food banks because she is not entitled to any support.

Though a night shelter for destitute asylum seeking men exists in Glasgow there is no such equivalent for women. It had been hoped that women could be accommodated in the homes of charitable volunteers but demand has grown rapidly.

Phil Arnold, Refugee Service Manger for British Red Cross (BRC), said that the experiences of the women who spoke out chimed with hundreds seen by the charity in the last two years. His Glasgow service has seen at least 700 destitute asylum seekers in Glasgow over the last year, about a third of them women.

Asylum seekers they helped were facing a range of exploitative situations, including selling sex for money or accommodation, domestic servitude and having their documents withheld. BRC has helped 13,000 in the last 24 months across the UK.

The level of destitution amongst those who are pregnant was of particular concern. Research suggests that though asylum seeking women make up jut 0.3 percent of pregnancies, they account for 12 percent of maternal death.

He said: "We are facing an emerging humanitarian crisis in the UK. We are seeing people who are not able to access support, even when they are entitled to it and who are unable to access information about their rights. We are particularly concerned about what happens in order for women to access shelter.

"We are also concerned about women who are pregnant, who are not entitled to support until a few weeks before their due date. We have seen high levels of destitution in pregnancy as well as a range of highly exploitative situations."

Research released by the charity in January raised concerns that the forthcoming Immigration Bill, which will see refused asylum seekers with children made destitute. From 2017 refused asylum seekers are due to lose the right to appeal decisions by the Home Office to discontinue their support. At the moment, 61 per cent successfully appeal.

Remzije Sherifi, co-ordinator of Maryhill Integration Network - one of the charities supporting women - said: “Over the last decade we have come across such painful stories from women who are destitute. This life is killing them slowly. Their lives are in limbo."

Phill Jones, co-ordinator of the Glasgow Night Shelter said that space for a women's shelter was desperately needed. "We can provide somewhere safe and reliable that is open every night, and where people can safely leave their belongings and get a hot meal," he said. "It lessens the insecurity and lifts some of that weight off their shoulders. We see a profound change come over people here. When they arrive they are very scared and anxious but after a few days they start to stand a little bit taller.

"It is crazy that the Home Office expects people to take life-changing decisions when they are living like this. We try to provide a safe space where they can think about whether they should stay and fight, or decide to go back. We believe that the policy of destitution is not only inhumane and immoral. It simply doesn't work."

Stuart MacDonald MP, SNP spokesman on immigration, said: “Deliberate destitution of vulnerable people is too often the policy tool of choice of UK governments when it comes to immigration control. It has regularly been shown to be utterly counterproductive, pushing folk further underground and away from both government and necessary support and advice.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "Genuine asylum seekers receive financial support as well as access to NHS healthcare, housing and education.”

Abducted, shot and gang-raped in Zimbabwe ... left destitute in Scotland

Shingiskayi, from Zimbabwe and in her late fifties, was a political activist in her own country where she says she was abducted, gang raped and shot before being left by the roadside to die. She was rescued, fled and started a long and complicated journey which eventually took her to Scotland more than five years after the attack. Her case was refused because the Home Office questioned her credibility. Now she has been destitute for four years and relies on the kindness - or otherwise - of strangers.

Though she says many hosts are wonderful, one used her as an unpaid nanny for their children in exchange for having somewhere to stay. "I was sleeping on the floor in the lounge," she says. "My host would often stay up late and there was nowhere for me to go. In the morning I would have to get up and look after the kids. People take advantage of our situation because we are vulnerable.

"I have spoken to several women from western or southern African countries who are forced to work as prostitutes. They are able to work in exchange for accommodation, to have somewhere to stay."

Matilda, from Gambia, who has been destitute for five months, also has friends who have been forced into prostitution. She says: "Even when you find somewhere to stay, you don't sleep, you have flashbacks. You think where will I be tomorrow? The weather is changing all the time - you need a warm coat, or shoes that do not have holes to let the water in.

"Sometimes you have to walk to a food bank and they don't have a voucher. Sometimes they will bully you or give you expired food - you have to take it in front of other people."

Precious, 39 from Zambia came to the UK for health care ten years ago. Her application to remain on human rights grounds was refused and she is now six months pregnant and destitute. "The prisoners who are locked up are better off because they have a bed - they have breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"They are on suicide watch to see that they are still breathing. But who watches us? The pain is wrapped up inside us. When we are alone it sometimes explodes. I keep thinking it's going to end but this is my fifth year now and I think the true human side of me has been worn away. The muscles of your face can still pull themselves into a smile but it feels like you have lost touch with humanity."

Like others who spoke to the Sunday Herald, she was refused dental treatment because she did not have the right paper work, despite the fact that both primary and secondary healthcare should be available to all in Scotland. "I stood in front of the mirror and said to myself I know how to handle pain and I pulled the tooth," she said. "I never thought I could be in a country like this and be refused treatment. We have leaders in the country who have heard our stories so many times. But they are not doing anything."

Jane, 63, from Zimbabwe, has also failed to get dental treatment and has been taking paracetamol for toothache for over a year. She fled torture in her home country 15 years ago. She was "helped" by a woman in the UK who took her passport off her for three years and allowed her to stay in exchange to domestic labour and childcare. The Home Office does not believe her story and has refused her case. She has been destitute for the best part of a decade, is diabetic and suicidal. "They treat animals better than they are treating us here," she said. "If someone comes to your country because they are in trouble and you don’t help them, that to me is also torture."