The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has published a Bill to outlaw trafficking in illegal immigrants and providing for unlimited fines or jail sentences of up to 10 years or both.
Mr O'Donoghue said there had been well-publicised incidents of groups of people being smuggled into the State in goods containers in an attempt to evade normal immigration checks.
He said he was "seriously concerned about the level of exploitation being perpetuated by organised criminal elements who arrange the movement of vulnerable individuals across borders in Europe under extremely dangerous conditions". The Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill would introduce measures in line with those taken by other EU states.
The Minister said it was essential that Ireland should fully honour its international obligations in respect of genuine asylum-seekers and refugees, who had nothing to fear from the proposed legislation.
He said comprehensive and fair procedures had been put in place to deal with the backlog of current applications. However, it was "absolutely vital to send out a very clear signal to those engaged in the organisation of trafficking of illegal immigrants that further exploitation of immigrants and evasion of immigration procedures will not be tolerated".
Labour's justice spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin warned that the Bill made "absolutely no distinction between professional traffickers and people who may, for humanitarian or personal reasons, assist the entry into this country of those who should qualify for refugee status".
If the Bill was allowed to pass unamended, it would create difficulties for organisations working with refugees and asylum-seekers.
"I am afraid that this Bill reflects an ethos prevalent under this Minister that is hostile to and suspicious of asylum-seekers. Under the definitions used in this Bill, even Oskar Schindler would have been regarded as a trafficker," said Mr Howlin.