At least 25 delegates who attended Melbourne’s high-profile AIDS conference intend to seek asylum in Australia after failing to board their flights home last week.

The men and women, who are mostly from African countries including Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia, decided to stay in Melbourne after the week-long conference finished on July 25.

“It’s hard though when people do not have any money at all,": Heather Hoist. Credit:Getty Images

Many of them are now homeless and have been put up in motels, backpacker hostels and rooming houses across the city.

Fairfax Media has spoken to three male African asylum seekers at length, but has chosen not to identify them over concerns for their safety if they were forced to return to their home countries.