Hanna Araya, an Eritrean asylum seeker, sells freshly baked bread at a London market during the noon rush as she waits to see if she can stay in the UK.

For the past six months, the 19-year-old has volunteered for Breadwinners, a nonprofit that provides work experience and paid employment to asylum seekers and refugees on their market booths in London and in nearby Brighton.

“It’s really (been) a big impact for me, because it’s been challenging to get here and to get the first job in the UK,” Araya told AFP of the opportunity provided by Breadwinners, whose slogan reads “Fresh Bread, Fresh Start”.

“So now I get confidence, I would love to work in the future, maybe to be a nurse or radiologist,” she said from the stall in Greenwich, south London.

In Britain, an asylum seeker who is allowed to remain permanently in the country obtains “refugee” status, in turn enabling them to gain paid work.

At the end of September, Britain had nearly 84,000 outstanding cases for refugee status, up 41 percent year-on-year, the latest official data showed.

Founded in 2016, Breadwinners has helped 208 refugees, the vast majority of whom have gone on to university or to find paid employment.

Over the past decade, UK sandwich chain Pret A Manger has hired refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Sri Lanka and Yemen.

“There are so many things refugees can bring to a company, from hard work… to infectious smiles,” said Alice Sloman, a manager at Breadwinners.

The war in Ukraine has resulted in millions of new refugees seeking sanctuary elsewhere in Europe.

Only around 12,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK since the start of the war owing to a slow administrative process compared with other countries.