Big interview: Welcome to the far away - Asmerom Woldegebriel, refugee and asylum adviser, Centrepoint

Woldegebriel is Centrepoint's first in-house specialist refugee worker, hired because of an unprecedented increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The figure has tripled over the past five years and the homelessness charity now houses about 226 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people under 18 from all over the globe. Woldegebriel's post, funded for a year by the Big Lottery Fund, was created to tackle their unique needs. It builds on a Centrepoint report published a year ago called Waiting in Line, highlighting difficulties the young asylum seekers have in getting into education, training and employment.

Those young unaccompanied asylum seekers have a safety net, in that they are given discretionary leave to remain until the age of 18, but they also face massive hurdles in having to prove their age to disbelieving Home Office officials on arrival. This is difficult, especially when they don't have the right documents with them, says Woldegebriel.