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34 year old Geraldine from Zimbabwe is hospitalised in London due to malnutrition. She has lost 15 kilos in the last six months. A successful artist and businesswoman in Zimbabwe, being a supporter of the MDC opposition party brought danger for her. She was never detained by Zanu PF officials but they frequently paid visits to her shop and beat her violently to punish her for her political allegiance. "After these beatings I was unrecognisable. My whole body turned purple. I couldn't move and I couldn't eat. My mum had to do everything for me, even sitting me on the toilet." She knew that her life was in danger if she remained in Zimbabwe so she fled to England. Her asylum claim was refused and since then she has been destitute, surviving only thanks to her cousin who is here on a student visa which permits her to work for 20 hours a week. The two women share a single bed in a rented room in East London little bigger than a walk in cupboard. "I know hundreds of other people in the same situation as me," she says. "All the time I have nightmares about people coming and beating me up. In these dreams someone is holding me down and I'm getting more and more scared." Geraldine is one of an estimated 300,000 rejected asylum seekers living in the UK.