Asylum-seekers and their supporters protested outside the Department of Justice in Dublin yesterday to mark the founding of a National Federation of Campaigns Against Racism.
Some 80 people picketed the Department's asylum applications office in Lower Mount Street, demanding the right to work, an end to deportations and the granting of citizenship to asylum-seeking parents of Irish-born children.
A federation spokesman, Mr Pat Guerin, said the State's policy on refugees was "inverting the whole legal process, with asylum-seekers considered to be illegal aliens unless they prove otherwise".
Citing the cases of asylum-seekers whose children were born in the State and, therefore, entitled to citizenship, he said such people were now in a legal limbo. "Theoretically, we could see a situation where Irish infants could see their parents deported."
The protesters were also addressed by Mr John Gormley TD, of the Green Party, who said the Government's failures had helped create "the spectre of racism".
If asylum-seekers were given the right to work, as most people felt they should, there would be an immediate lessening of hostility towards them.
Mr Gormley said he wanted to pay tribute to a fellow deputy, Sinn Fein's Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain, for his "courageous and principled stance" in support of the Romanians in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
The federation formed yesterday brings together a range of organisations, including the Community of Romanians in Ireland, the Association of Nigerian Asylum Seekers in Ireland, the Monaghan-based Roma Support Group and the Anti-Racism Campaign.
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