By Jane Elliott BBC News health reporter

Dr Williams wanted to highlight the plight of failed asylum seekers

Experts say that many are left in limbo, often having to survive in the UK for long periods without benefits before being repatriated.

To highlight their plight GP Dr Paul Williams, who works at a practice catering for more than 600 people seeking asylum, refugee status or failed asylum seekers, tried to follow the same lifestyle for a week himself.

He lived on just �5 and a food bag containing basics such as rice, tuna, beans, oil and tinned tomatoes.

He said he hoped to use his experiences to highlight their plight.

"The reason I did this was partly as a stunt to publicise this and partly to get a bit of empathy and understanding for them."

Vulnerable

He said that his patients were often very vulnerable people who were mistreated and ostracised by society.

"There is a political tendency that has been perpetrated quite widely, that people are either genuine refugees or bogus asylum seekers.

I feel we treat these people inhumanely Dr Paul Williams Daily diary: Living on �5

"From my experience and from research I have done, it is absolutely clear nobody comes here for benefit reasons or to get round the system.

"People have fled from war, places where people have been killed and have been tortured. They come for reasons of safety. "They do not always reach the criteria though and they can not always satisfy the burden of proof.

"I feel we treat these people inhumanely. We stop them getting benefits and housing.

"We cannot always send them home, so they fall into a limbo and suffer. They get depressed and very frightened about being returned to their homes. They are needy, vulnerable people.

"I have 45 people I am looking after who have been left in limbo and not going anywhere. They are living in absolute poverty. Some are professional, well-educated people from horrible countries where terrible things have happened."

Strain

Dr Williams said after just one week of living below the poverty line, his body was showing the strain.

"I did not feel good. I felt I had struggled to cope with the busy workload and other things I do.

"At the end of the week I could not think clearly."

Each day started with porridge

Within days of starting the restricted diet on a Sunday morning he had a constant headache, which he blamed on caffeine withdrawal.

He said after a busy day he found it difficult to concentrate in the evenings and had early nights.

By Friday he was starting to feel very hungry indeed.

He wrote in his diary: "By the end if the afternoon I felt as though all of my patients had taken a little bit from me, leaving me drained of energy.

"I stayed until 5.45pm doing paperwork, but left some unanswered letters until Monday. I was hungry. Normally I would have some chocolate or a banana."

In just a week Dr Williams lost 1.7kg (3lb 7oz). He said the long-term effects of this lifestyle on his patients could be devastating.

Many cannot cook the food they are given, because they have no facilities.

One of his male patients, whose asylum claim failed, has lost more than 10% of his body weight in under six months.

The man feared he had Aids, but his weight loss was due to a lack of nutrition.

Often we shop on the web and get our food delivered to the house - that can cost �5 just for the delivery. If we did that this week we'd get an empty box Dr Paul Williams

He told the BBC News website: "I am having to prescribe him dietary calories."

He comes from an African state where for just a few pence he could be eating nutritious food from a roadside cafe, but there is nothing he can buy for this price in the UK.

Dr Williams said: "He is living on the fringes of our society. In the winter he was sleeping in a disused toilet in the centre of Stockton."

Dr Williams said the challenge had allowed him to take a realistic look at his patients' lifestyles. Just buying his customary Sunday paper would have cost him a third of his weekly budget.

Other 'luxury' items like membership of his local gym, transport costs, petrol and parking fees were not included in the restricted budget - options not open to his patients.

THE ARRIVAL PRACTICE The Arrival Practice caters for refugees in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, and treats almost 600 people seeking asylum, given refugee status or failed asylum seekers The patients come from more than 40 countries and speak more than 50 languages

In his diary he said: "Often we shop on the web and get our food delivered to the house. That can cost �5 just for the delivery. If we did that this week we'd get an empty box."

Looking back at the week's challenge Dr Williams admits he and his partner Vicky, who also did the challenge, were somewhat cushioned by his existing support networks.

"We managed adequately on the �5 and the bag, but only because of the other comforts that we had in our lives. And we only had to do it for one week."

The Mary Thompson Fund provides financial support to refugees and asylum and failed asylum seekers. to donate call (07910) 218 622 or send a cheque to 119-121 Marton Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 2DU