Asylum seekers agree to leave Cathedral

Just over 200 asylum seekers in Niger have agreed to vacate by Saturday, a cathedral which they have been occupying since 24 July, the Missionary News Agency, MISNA, reported. The group had demanded money and that the UNHCR speed up the examination of their asylum applications. A UNHCR official who met with the asylum seekers this week told IRIN on Friday that Niger’s government had established an asylum status eligibility commission to review the cases. He said UNHCR would send lawyers to help the commission process the asylum requests once it begins to work. He said that the asylum seekers, most of whom are from the Democratic Republic of Congo while others are from Chad and Cameroon, had gone to Morocco and Algeria with a view to travelling to Spain but were deported to Niger, which has a border with Algeria. Church officials had given the asylum seekers, and the handful of refugees who had come to support their cause, until Monday to leave or face eviction from the Niamey Cathedral. The church has agreed to give them 30 sacks of rice, 15 sacks of gari (cassava flour), oil and sardines, the UNHCR official said. MISNA added that the Niamey Diocese had also agreed to supply clothing and “a small sum of money”. Caritas and UNHCR will provide soap, blankets, cooking pots and utensils.