Inside an Eritrean refugee squat in Calais

Inside Africa House in Calais, so called because it's where the Eritrean asylum seekers are squatting Photograph: Graeme Robertson

A man kneels down while another is deeply asleep on a mattress inside the squat. A woman's bag hangs up in the corner. There are about 10 Eritrean women living here and 40 men Photograph: Graeme Robertson

This asylum seeker fled from Eritrea into Ethiopia, then travelled by car into Libya, by boat to Italy and finally into France by train. He is hoping to hide on a truck to get into the UK Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Rubbish is piled high outside the Calais squat. The French authorities want the asylum seekers to leave, so they do not provide any basic services such as refuse collection. Nor is there water or electricity Photograph: Graeme Robertson

An asylum seeker walks into the squat. He doesn't want to be identified for fear of reprisals on his family in Eritrea Photograph: Graeme Robertson

The doors and windows are either boarded up or covered with tarpaulin. Recently the police threw teargas into the building in an attempt to force the refugees to move Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Graffiti in a mixture of Tigrinya, the official language of Eritrea, and English lines the walls Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Burn marks on the hands of one of the asylum seekers. They burn themselves in case they are caught, in the mistaken belief that this will remove their fingerprints. If they have already been fingerprinted in another European country, they will be returned there Photograph: Graeme Robertson