People who help asylum-seekers to enter the State on humanitarian grounds could be penalised under proposed legislation to be debated in the Dail today, according to the Labour Party.
The party's spokesman on justice, Mr Brendan Howlin, said he intended to try to amend the Bill, which is aimed at tackling the trafficking of illegal immigrants.
Mr Howlin's concerns were echoed yesterday by Amnesty International which said the Bill as it stands would punish someone like Oskar Schindler, the businessman who saved 1,200 Jews from death in Nazi concentration camps.
Amnesty International's refugee co-ordinator, Dr Colin Harvey, said the proposed law raised "serious issues" under the United Nations' Refugee Convention which asks states not to penalise asylum-seekers.
Under the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill, anyone found trafficking illegal immigrants will face a 10-year prison sentence or an unlimited fine.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, will introduce the Bill in the Dail today, along with an amendment providing that carriers of illegal immigrants will face on-the-spot fines of up to £5,000.
Amnesty International and Mr Howlin say they are concerned about the Bill's failure to draw a distinction between professional traffickers and genuine people helping asylum-seekers to enter the State to escape persecution on humanitarian grounds.
"This law would have penalised Oskar Schindler," said Dr Harvey. "The problem with it is that historically people have acted out of entirely humanitarian reasons in helping people out of states and the fear is that we don't want those people to be penalised by this Act."
Dr Harvey said Amnesty International accepted the need for the regulation of trafficking, but it was essential that traffickers were criminalised, and not refugees.
The Irish Refugee Council said its primary concern was that the Bill does not damage refugee protection in the State.