Shocking pictures of Hong Kong 'coffin homes' show chopping boards feet away from toilets in cramped apartments as narrow as a single mattress.

Axar.az reports citing Mail Online

They have been condemned by the UN as 'an insult to human dignity', but so-called 'coffin homes' still house around 200,000 people in jam-packed Hong Kong.

According to the Census and Statistics Department, those people are being housed in around 88,000 subdivided apartments.

These shocking pictures, which form part of a new exhibition by the Society for Community Organisation, reveal desperately cramped living spaces where toilets are feet away from chopping boards and rooms are the width of a single-bed mattress.

Because of long waits for public housing and sky-rocketing rent costs, many poor people in Hong Kong are forced to simply accept their tiny living spaces.

One, Tony, told the South China Morning Post he dreads going home to his 15 square foot flat, adding: 'The most difficult thing about living here is not being able to breathe in fresh air. It’s suffocating.'