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It’s always shocking to see people bedding down on cardboard in sleeping bags in Manchester city centre. Even more so on the coldest night of the year, which is when reporter John Scheerhout headed out to speak to those who somehow managed to survive a cloudless night when temperatures plummeted to -4C.
On St Peter's Square, in the shadow of the Christmas Markets, he found ten poor souls huddled beside the council's headquarters.
Among them was Shahir Alfaho - a refugee from war-torn Sudan who fled to Libya until the Arab Spring uprising and later paid traffickers to flee the violence and take him to Italy, France and finally the UK.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk