A "racist moral panic" has developed around refugees in Ireland over the last few years, according to research carried out for a new refugee lobby group.
Northern Ireland has been "mercifully largely free of this development", according to the report commissioned by the Belfast-based Refugee Action Group. The study of the needs of refugees and asylum-seekers in the North also touches on the asylum issue in the Republic.
It concludes that in the Republic the term "refugee" has played a key role in a new form of racism, "with people using very specific stereotypes about refugees as an excuse for discrimination against them."
The Refugee Action Group wants an end to the practice of detaining some asylum-seekers in prison, and forcing them to travel to Liverpool for interviews for their claims to remain in the North as refugees fleeing persecution.
The group's chair, Mr Les Allamby from the Northern Ireland Law Centre, said the detention of asylum-seekers in Maghaberry Jail near Moira, Co Armagh, was unacceptable. "There are people who have been detained for six to nine months and a nine-month sentence is what someone convicted of a serious assault would serve," he said.
"These are people who have not committed any crimes and they are spending the same time in prison as someone who has committed a serious crime."
There are no official figures for the numbers of asylum-seekers in the North. However, the group estimates there are around 2,000 asylum-seekers and refugees living in Northern Ireland.
These figures take into account the movement of asylum-seekers and refugees between the Republic and the North. Between five and 10 asylum-seekers are held in Maghaberry Prison at any one time, according to the group.
Mr Allamby said the Refugee Action Group wants the authorities to reverse the recent "retrograde step" of obliging asylum-seekers to travel from the North to the UK for their refugee interviews. This follows a move this month by the North's Immigration Service to concentrate on detection of illegal migrants and enforcement of deportation orders, leaving the processing of case work to staff in Liverpool.
Mr Allamby said the Northern Ireland Law Centre would arrange local legal representation for claimants, but the necessity for long journeys to England "will make life harder for asylum-seekers and their families and friends. We'd call on the Immigration Service to think again, this is a retrograde step."
A report commissioned by the group calls for an all-Ireland policy for asylum-seekers and refugees in the context of the Good Friday agreement. It also seeks more resources for legal advice for asylum-seekers and for refugee support workers.