In seven working days, the City of Cape Town can enforce its bylaws on the refugees and asylum seekers living outside the Central Methodist Mission church on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town, notes a News24 report.

This after Judge Daniel Thulare granted an interim order to the city in the Western Cape High Court yesterday. He also ordered the city to, within seven days, arrange a venue where the Department of Home Affairs can process the refugees and asylum seekers, with the city to provide transport.

It must further process refugees and asylum seekers who are in distress, Thulare ordered.

According to the rule nisi, the refugees and asylum seekers have until 17 March to show cause why a final order should not be granted. The interim order means that, while the City can't remove people from the church, it can enforce the bylaw on the people staying outside the church, with one of the bylaws prohibiting people from staying overnight in a public area.

This effectively means the people living outside the church, can no longer do so.

In terms of the interim order, the refugees and asylum seekers may not intimidate, threaten, harass or interfere in any way with city officials; damage city property; prevent people from entering or leaving the area; and contravene bylaws, in particular by staying overnight, making fires, washing clothes, attend to personal hygiene, and occupying or erecting a structure in public spaces.

In October, a sit-in began at the Waldorf Arcade on St George's Mall in Cape Town, where the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees is housed.

The refugees demanded that they be relocated to a country other than their country of origin, citing fears of xenophobia in SA.

Full News24 report