Eight Indonesian Christians seeking asylum in the United States have been granted a temporary stay of their deportation orders.

Five of them have been living in New Jersey's Reformed Church of Highland Park for months in defiance of an order to boot them out of the country.

Immigration officials say the Christians can stay here legally for another year while they continue to seek asylum status.

Hundreds of Indonesian Christians fled their country in the mid-90s, when radical Muslims attacked Christian villages and destroyed more than 1,000 churches.