SOME have called them "bogus illegal immigrants". But one became a councillor, another a professional football player. A third gave up his career as a doctor to start a food business that now employs 30 people. And a fourth uses his wheelchair to fight for his nation.

Use the term "asylum seekers", and many would think of leeches who flock to Britain to suck the system dry. But a new exhibition at the Museum of London makes the voices of these often-misunderstood people heard. It tells the stories of their suffering and loss, but also of their quest to fit in and contribute to their new home.

With the help of various charities, the museum recorded 400 hours of interviews with 150 refugees who fled more than 15 war-torn nations for sanctuary in Britain.

Many were prominent in their own countries, only to find they are a nobody in London. General Haile Mercurios was the deputy commander of the Ethiopian Air Force before he escaped from a bloody Eritrea in 1975.

But how do you tell that to a job centre, he asked. "They would not take me to anything if (I) said I was a general." Instead, he told them he used to work as a salesman - even though he had "never sold even a pin". It bagged him his first job as a furniture salesman - and he excelled.

The cardiologist Dr Nayeem Azim arrived from Afghanistan in 1993 and discovered that he had to requalify as a doctor. "Two weeks before that I was working in cardiology and then two weeks later I'm sitting in a class learning A,B,C - so back to square one."

It took two years of studying 10 to 16 hours a day before Dr Azim could write his first prescription - the first time he felt normal again. Now he works as a GP while running a college supporting refugee doctors.

The Iraqi father-of-three Mahdi Mahdi, also a doctor, left his profession entirely after fleeing Algeria when it fell into civil war in 1992. He first tried to requalify, but to put bread on the table he started a Mediterranean food business with his wife from their backyard.

In the space of eight years, their firm has grown to a turnover of £800,000 with clients including Somerfields and Budgens. "We used to get benefits but now we depend on ourselves and we have about 30 people working for us."

For some, Britain is a dream come true. Ilona Marjanska, 17, now plays professional football for Leyton Orient Ladies in east London. Along with her Roma family (often called Gypsies), she left her native Poland and came to London aged six. At the time the only English she knew was "apple" and "dog"; now she is doing her A-levels in PE, Psychology and Biology.

"I told someone that I'm a Roma and they go: 'Oh, do you live in a caravan? Do you do this, do you do that? Do you go out and steal?' I kept saying 'no' and they go, 'Oh, that's what they heard'. That's how they see the Roma.

"I explained it to them that it's not like that... They looked at me and they took it back 'cause they understood that it's not like that."

Paul Sathianesan, who fled Sri Lanka amongst race riots in 1985, started off in London by working at a petrol station. More than a decade later he was elected as a Labour councillor in Newham - the first of three consecutive terms.

"I was called bogus illegal everything and today I was called a councillor. Nothing is permanent, you can change and also refugees can contribute to this country as well."

Others found it much harder to adjust. After more than 20 years of living in Croydon, 59-year-old Shabibi Shah still does not feel at home. "I try hard to belong, but something holds me back."

Her family fled Afghanistan in 1984, after her journalist husband was beaten up in prison. A former teacher of Farsi and history, Shabibi laboriously taught herself English by translating library books. Her suffering prompted her to help others - first as an interpreter for Croydon Council and now as a trustee for a charity helping refugees.

Nevertheless, the displacement lingered, so much so that she wrote her autobiography in English and called it "Where do I belong?" Even now she says: "I can't go back and I can't fit in."

In contrast, the young wheelchair athlete Shaho Qadir considers himself both Kurdish and British. He made London his home in 2003, having lost his legs when his Iraqi hometown of Halabja was bombed during the reign of Saddam Hussein.

"I thank Britain for hosting me and treating me like a citizen," he said. At the same time, he uses his sports achievements to speak out for his voiceless people. "My wheelchair is like my weapon with which I could defend my Kurdish nation."

Ultimately refugees are just human beings, says Nidia Castro, 74, a refugee support worker who herself fled the Pinochet tyranny in Chile with her three children in 1976.

"Terrible things can happen to anyone. Refugees have to be treated ... not as numbers or objects or things that can be pushed around.

"People should think that these refugees are human beings like anybody else - like their friends, their cousins, their sisters. Just human beings, that's all."

  • Belonging: voices of London's refugees, Museum of London, 27 October - 25 February 2007. Admission free.

DEBUNKING MYTHS

  • In 2005, the UK was 14th in a table of EU countries in terms of the number of asylum seekers per head of population. The UK is home to less than 3% of the world's refugees.
  • In 2003 the Immigration Service tested 5,000 asylum seekers for infectious diseases and found that none carried TB, HIV, Aids or any other serious disease.
  • In the first half of 2006, one in four appeals against negative asylum decisions succeeded.
  • 23% of asylum seekers and refugees have degrees or higher qualifications before coming to Britain.
  • Most asylum seekers live in poor quality accommodation in deprived areas.
  • Home Office research showed most asylum seekers have little or no knowledge of the UK welfare system before they arrive.
  • According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, the "vast majority of people seeking asylum are law-abiding citizens". They are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.
  • Asylum seekers cannot vote in local or general elections in the UK, and do not have access to loans.

(Source: Museum of London)