Only surprise is how long refugee influx has taken to happen here

REFUGEES queue for their weekly handout, their numbers swelling massively from early morning. When the office finally opens, all hell breaks out and the forces of the law are called in to restore order.

It sounds like a scene from a refugee camp in Zaire, but it's actually Castle Street in Dublin, where a "near riot" broke out last week among asylum seekers queueing at the Eastern Health Board's welfare office.

Not since the Celts were driven west by the Romans has Ireland seen such a large influx of refugees. A country which has been exporting people by the bucket load for centuries has suddenly become a destination of choice for the huddled masses of the Third World. But the arrival of Romanians, Zaireans, Somalis and many other nationalities seems to have caught officialdom by surprise.

"The modern multicultural, multi coloured world has finally hit Dublin and we can no longer see Ireland as a green pasture packed with white faces," says Bobby Eager, a prominent immigration lawyer. "At the same time, the Department of Justice is totally understaffed to deal with the numbers arriving."

Anyone who has watched the spread of conflict and economic chaos in the post Cold War world could have foreseen that the great wave of migration must eventually wash up on Irish shores. Yet the response of Government departments has been disorganised and dithering.

A lack of resources has pushed the homeless into competition with asylum seekers for beds in hostels. Lowpaid and over worked public servants in the EHB have been stretched to the limit, until the patience of those working in Castle Street finally snapped last week and the office was closed. At the Irish Refugee Council, most of the staff dealing with a deluge of arrivals are on FAS training schemes and earning as little as the refugees get each week in welfare payments.

Meanwhile, the Refugee Act which would regulate the situation has still not been implemented, even though it was passed by the Oireachtas 11 months ago. Disagreement between the Department of Justice and the Attorney General over the free legal aid scheme to be offered to asylum seekers has produced a flurry of correspondence, but little progress.

This failure to get to grips with the problem is costing the Department money. The EHB pays landlords £27 a night for emergency accommodation for refugees, and £10 for their children. Some refugees have even been put up in hotels costing £100 a night.

So far this year, the number of asylum seekers has reached 1,200 (and we are not yet fully half way through the year), compared to 1,179 for the whole of last year and 424 the year before. The largest contingent is from Romania, followed by Zaire, Somalia and Algeria. There are many reasons, internal and external, for the influx.

Since the breakup of the USSR and its satellite states, world geopolitics has been marked by growing instability and numerous localised conflicts.

As Amnesty International reports, torture is systematic in more than 80 countries. Almost half the members of the UN impose the death penalty. In most countries of the world life for those who for one reason or another do not toe the line can be both dangerous and desperate.

Increased travel and global communications now make the West more immediate and attainable. Refugee numbers across Europe have been increasing for some years now and the only surprise is how long it has taken the trend to reach Ireland.

One of the reasons it has is the tightening up of regulations in other European states. As Noeleen Blackwell of Amnesty puts it: "Keep them at bay is the order of the day."

Many countries have developed fast track procedures for dealing with asylum seekers and are quick to send applicants back to so called safe third countries if the opportunity arises. In 1994, Denmark developed a white list - a list of countries where the risk of human rights violations is deemed to be insufficient to justify an individual fleeing to seek protection abroad - and the UK and other states have followed suit.

The presence of Romania on the white lists of many of our EU partners helps explain why the largest group of asylum seekers comes from that country. Yet the Romanians are the most controversial of the new arrivals. The Department blames them for the trouble on Castle Street and clearly feels many Romanians are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees.

The sight of so many Romanian gypsies begging on Dublin's streets has also prompted much public comment, though Bobby Eagar defends it as "part of their culture".

At least some refugees are drawn here by Ireland's economic success and the relatively generous welfare payments we make to asylum seekers - £100 a week plus free health care. Another factor cited is the growing international profile of the country, something attributable to factors as diverse as the President, Mrs Robinson, the Irish soccer team and the spread of the Irish pub.

As Bobby Eagar points out, the latest arrivals are highly visible, because most of them are poor and haven't yet formed their own communities, as the Chinese and Vietnamese have. "They are also forced to remain idle, when it would make much better sense if the authorities allowed them to set up businesses."

Eagar has clients who have been waiting in limbo for up to six years before a decision is made on their application. In what amounts to an admission of its own failure, the Department often gives asylum seekers humanitarian leave to stay in the country. This applies even where their application for refugee status has been rejected, because it would be unfair to send asylum seekers home after they have been living in Ireland so long.

This was the case with several hundred Cubans, whose applications were rejected last year but who were then allowed to stay anyway. Not for the first time, the Minister of State at the Department, Joan Burton, intervened personally to interpret the regulations liberally.

Yet, a clampdown may be starting even now. Almost the last act of the Dail on Thursday was to pass the Dublin Convention, which will allow for the deportation of asylum seekers to the first EU country in which they arrived. This would affect Romanians who arrive in Ireland from other EU states.

Joan Burton concedes that "once the Refugee Act is in place and we're making decisions we will be back to putting people on planes again".

This is the difficult part of the process. An Algerian asylum seeker recently deported from Britain was killed two weeks later. No politician or official wants to have that stain on their hands. It was possible for officialdom to drag its heels when the numbers were small, but not any more.