THE man who enslaved and abused Mariam Tola Williams told her: “No-one will fight for you”.

Orphaned in Lagos, Nigeria, at just 14, she was brought to England not to the popular fiction of free benefits and a council house, but to life with a criminal who stole from her, burned her with cigarettes and made her sleep in a garage.

But eight years later, living in Berry Brow, the Kirklees College graduate in Health and Social Care not only volunteers in a charity shop and in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, but has been named Yorkshire’s Refugee of the Year.

Mariam, 22, was born to a Muslim father and a Roman Catholic mother, but her father’s family did not support the marriage and disowned him.

Mariam had one brother.

With her mother an only child, the family had few places to turn when times got tough – as they quickly did.

Mariam said: “My father made a living selling shoes and we lived together happily. But when I was nine he got sick.

“He went to sleep and never woke up. My mother couldn’t cope with the bills and soon we were asked to leave our apartment. I was homeless with my mother and my brother, Tolu.

“He became sick with chicken pox which got worse and worse and we couldn’t pay the medical bills. He died and my mother suffered so much.”

Mariam’s mother decided to move with her daughter to neighbouring French-speaking Benin.

When they got there they were faced with the reality of living in a building which had not been completed, and her mother tried to make a living selling fruit.

With her own health failing, Mariam’s mother resorted to traditional medicine, but eventually, with medical bills still outstanding, she went to hospital and was confronted with another request for money.

She was refused treatment and died.

Aged 10, in the space of a year, Mariam had lost her entire family and was alone, apart from the occasional care of friends her mother had made.

In 2003, aged 14, it was one of these friends that brought her to Dublin for three days, before passage to London, where ironically, the situation worsened.

Mariam said: “He told me I would go to school, but when I got to here he just left me with a woman.

“I was a slave. I had no name, I worked all the time and stayed in the garage. He came back and moved me to different places and I went to Manchester.

“He said I had to work and he got me a cleaning job, but the money went to his account.

“If I ever asked him about it he said he was saving it for my schooling.”

She added: “He would stub cigarettes on me and if I shouted he said there was no-one who would fight for me, because I didn’t have anyone.”

Eventually the police found Mariam in the course of a stolen credit card and handling stolen goods investigation. The man was never traced.

Mariam applied for asylum and was taken to the Angel Lodge Centre in Wakefield, where she received initial help with depression.

From here she moved to Huddersfield and registered with the Whitehouse GP Practice who organised a counsellor for her, Gill Martin.

Mariam said: “Gill and the nurse were very helpful and they encouraged me to get help for my depression.”

Granted refugee status, she was able to enter Kirklees College in 2008 to study health and social care, receiving help to improve her English and spelling.

Now, throwing herself into community work, Mariam is a theatre volunteer in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and works in a charity shop. She is also grateful to Kirkburton’s Croftlands Care Home for the opportunity of a work placement and to her career advisor Carole Kennedy.

Despite an almost unimaginably dark start in life, Mariam’s story was described as “humbling” by the judging panel of the Regional Migration Partnership (RMP) who named her the Yorkshire Refugee of the Year.

Dave Brown, of the RMP, said: “Mariam’s determination to help others after what she has been through is truly inspirational.”

She said: “I’m very proud that people appreciate what I’ve done.

“It made me feel that the sky is the limit. I’ve had so much help from the organisations and the counsellors.

“The people in Yorkshire are friendly and I’m proud of them, it’s made me feel like I’ve got my family back.”