Ten Burmese families are to settle in Co Mayo after arriving in Ireland under a UN refugee resettlement scheme.
The group of 52 men, women and children have been living in an isolated refugee camp on the border between Thailand and Burma for the past 10 years. A further 45 of their compatriots will come to Ireland in mid-November.
On arrival at Dublin airport, the group were met by head of integration at the Department of Justice John Haskins, before travelling to Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo. They will spend two months at a training centre there to prepare them for permanent resettlement in Castlebar.
The refugees were selected for a resettlement programme run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, under which Ireland receives up to 200 refugees each year.
Ireland is one of 18 countries, and one of only six EU member states, which participates in the programme.
"Resettlement is considered only as a last resort when all other options for these people have been considered," said a spokesman for the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
"Most refugees hope to return to their country of origin to rebuild their lives, and when that option is not available, their second preferred option is to rebuild their lives in familiar surroundings in another country in the region."
Burma, one of the poorest countries in Asia, has been under military rule of one form or another since 1962.
The Irish Government is a consistent advocate of the country's pro-democracy activists, including Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in the capital Rangoon despite her party's victory in elections in 1990.
Last year, 180 Iranian Kurds arrived from a refugee camp in Jordan and were resettled under the UN programme in Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon and Mullingar.
They had spent 25 years living in refugee camps after fleeing Iran following the Islamic Revolution and war with Iraq in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
