Gardai in Wexford expect another large influx of Romanian asylum-seekers in Rosslare today following the discovery of 27 adults and 20 children in two lorry containers in the port on Thursday night.
A Garda spokesman said last night this was based on information they had received. "One truck driver told us that there are literally hundreds of refugees in France waiting to come over."
Some of those who arrived on Thursday are only a few months old. One young woman is eight months pregnant and a doctor had to be called when it appeared she was going into labour. The group had spent two nights in the claustrophobic interior of the containers before arriving on Thursday.
A Garda spokesman based in the port said the conditions in which the refugees had travelled had to be seen to be believed.
The latest asylum-seekers come from a small town outside the city of Arad in eastern Romania and include six extended families, their relations and friends. As they stood at St Michael's Hall in the sunshine yesterday evening, the women looked more like arrivals from a bygone era with their shawls, head scarves and long flowing skirts. The older men were dressed in old-fashioned black suits reminiscent of 1950s Ireland.
The group belongs to Roma, an ethnic group which suffers discrimination and persecution. According to the Irish Refugee Trust, members of the Roma community are marginalised even more than travellers are in Ireland.
The South Eastern Health Board, which now has one community welfare officer in Wexford dealing full-time with refugee applications for supplementary welfare and rental allowances, was trying to find premises where the refugees could be accommodated in family groups.
All emergency accommodation in the town is full and guest-house spaces are limited because of the tourist season. Health board staff were being helped by members of the Garda Siochana, which now has nine full-time officers in Rosslare for the purpose of routinely searching freight containers arriving in the port.
The continuous arrival of the refugees into Wexford is also putting staffing pressure on the housing department of Wexford Corporation which has an obligation to find emergency accommodation for the asylum-seekers.