AFRICAN asylum seekers in the North-East have gone into hiding because they fear deportation to their war-torn homeland.

Dozens of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have gone underground in the past few weeks.

Officials admit they have no idea where the asylum seekers have gone.

The Northern Echo understands they are being sheltered by friends - moving from house to house in order to avoid detection.

The Home Office is deporting Congolese nationals - despite a Foreign Office warning to British travellers to stay away from the civil-war zone.

Although Home Office officials say they don't have a strict policy on returning humanitarian refugees to the West African country, ref-ugees in the region would rather hide than risk being sent back.

Their plight is revealed just days after 1,000 civilians were massacred by tribal rebel militias in the north-east of the country.

One illegal refugee, who is in hiding on Teesside, told The Northern Echo that, as a government supporter in his native country, he would be killed if he ever returned home.

Paul, 34, who fled Congo two years ago and sought political asylum in Britain, has had his £36-a-week benefits stopped, his accommodation taken from him and has been told in a Home Office letter to leave the UK immediately.

He said: "I came here because I feared for my life. I know that since I left, my wife and child have been arrested. I don't know if they're alive or dead.

"But I know one thing - if I go back to my home town I will be killed. I don't want to officially disappear in Britain, but if this country wants me out I have no choice."

Asylum seeker Mona Kakengi, a former lawyer from Kinshasa, Congo's capital, said the British government is sending mixed messages.

Living at the moment in Stockton, he said: "The Home Office is deporting people because their argument for staying isn't strong enough apparently, but at the same time the Foreign Office is advising against British people going.

"Without a work permit, accommodation or benefits, these people are desperate, but Africans stick together and support each other. They don't want to break the law, but it's either that or death."

Congo, formerly Zaire, was plunged into civil war in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed an uprising in the east to overthrow the Kinshasa government.

Human rights groups say up to 500,000 people have fled their homes and more than 2.5m have been killed by war, disease or malnutrition.

Last Thursday's massacre, in which hundreds of civilians were butchered with machetes and guns, happened just day's after a peace agreement.

The Foreign Office advises travellers to avoid visiting DRC because much of eastern and north-eastern DRC is still affected by war and conflict.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not have a blanket policy on returning people to the DRC. If they have valid travel documents, i.e. a passport, they can be returned. The country may well be safer for Congolese nationals than for westerners."