ASYLUM seekers and their supporters in north Durham and Tyneside are to meet with a religious leader next week.

Kevin Dunn, Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, will meet volunteers and help collect their donations in Lanchester and Low Fell, Gateshead, before meeting asylum seekers at a diocesan drop-in centre in Benwell.

He is keen to highlight the plight of failed asylum seekers who cannot return home because of fears for their safety, but don't receive Government support and are forced to remain destitute in the UK.

Bishop Dunn said: "If you've been refused asylum here, but you can't return home because your life's in danger, what can you do?

"You exist like a ghost in our community. It's our duty to respond with Christian sympathy and help in whatever way we can.

"It's also important to thank the ordinary people in the parishes and wider community who put such tremendous efforts into collecting food and clothing for people they don't even know."

Bishop Dunn next Wednesday will visit All Saints Church, in Lanchester, at about 9.30am and then St Peter's Church, in Low Fell, to meet some of the parish volunteers who organise collections in their communities.