A challenge to the legality of the continuing detention of 25 Indian nationals and asylum-seekers in Limerick Prison opened yesterday before the High Court and will resume before Mr Justice Smyth on Monday.
The applicants have been detained since June 15th, when they were arrested after leaving an Aeroflot plane at Shannon Airport which stopped en route to Havana in Cuba. An earlier court hearing was told they ran past an immigration checkpoint and had no visas.
Yesterday, the men brought judicial review proceedings against the State, claiming the detention orders made by District Judge Tom O'Donnell should be quashed and that they should be released and bailed pending decisions on their applications for asylum.
Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for the applicants, said a decision on their asylum applications was not expected until next month.
Mr Shipsey said his clients were being held under Section 9 of the 1966 Refugee Act, which stated that the District Judge must be satisfied that the individuals involved posed a threat to national security or public order.
Asylum-seekers were not ordinarily detained pending determination of their applications for refugee status, he said. None of the applicants had been issued with temporary resident status because they were detained under Section 9 of the Act.
Asylum-seekers must be put in a different position to the criminally accused or convicted persons, Mr Shipsey argued.
In Limerick District Court, the 25 people had their detention orders extended to Friday next.
The court heard that eight of the 25 were members of a showband going to perform in Denmark.
After hearing the evidence, Judge O'Donnell said he was satisfied the State was "slowly but surely putting together the pieces of the jigsaw and that the men were part of a plan to use this country to go elsewhere".