Tarek Panja

Most of them are carrying backpacks.

Later tonight, many will catch trains to try and reach France, Germany and the UK.

The routes to Europe are notoriously dangerous, but for women the risks are even greater.

Some even carry condoms because they know they could be raped at any point.

I can still hear the voice of my sister and of all those women screaming for help.

In this shelter, women and families who've just arrived sleep on small metal-framed beds with nowhere else to go.

We have women from Nepal tonight, from Cameroon, from Kosovo.

Katarina runs the shelter.

She says many of the women here are fleeing gender-based violence, abuse or harm directed at them because they are women.

Yet many face the same threats again on the journey to Europe.

Sometimes they don't even realise that they are victims of gender violence because for them it's normal.

Does this make it harder when women seek asylum because it's quite difficult to explain?

what gender violence is.

Yes, it is harder because they must first grow the awareness and also sometimes they are ashamed to tell.

And then the request for asylum is rejected.

It can take years.

My name is Adebayo Esther.

Esther from Nigeria was sleeping in the streets of Lagos when a woman promised her a new life in Europe.

She didn't hesitate.

She'd always dreamed of living in the UK.