A senior Catholic bishop protested today over the treatment of a group of Moldovans who were jailed after arriving in the State more than a week ago in search of work.
Immigration authorities detained the 19 men because the jobs in the meat trade which they went to Ireland to fill were no longer available following an industry downturn caused by the BSE crisis.
The 19 men - who were initially taken to appear before a judge handcuffed to prison officers, and were led into court in chains - were freed last night by the High Court.
The handcuffs were removed when it was pointed out that the men were not facing criminal charges.
The 19 were before the court to mount a legal challenge to their detention - they had been held at Dublin's Mountjoy jail since arriving from Bucharest, Romania, last Sunday.
They were released when Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan was told that all the men - who had valid passports and work permits - had been offered alternative jobs.
The Bishop of Ferns, the Rt Rev Brendan Comiskey, said the treatment the men suffered was "exceedingly strange", and claimed there had been similar cases in the past.
"There is no policy about cases like this. It is really bizarre," he said.
"Here are men with valid passports, visas and work permits, yet they end up in Mountjoy and in court.
"It is not at all an isolated incident, it's been going on over a number of years."
In another comment on the affair, the parliamentary opposition Labour Party said the treatment of the Moldovans amounted to a national disgrace, and "a stain on Ireland's reputation".
Front bench spokesman Mr Emmet Stagg, who helped the men find jobs, declared: "It defies belief that in a democratic society, people who arrive with valid documentation should find themselves in jail for six days.
"This whole episode illustrates the ethos of hostility and suspicion the seems to govern the approach of our Department of Justice to non-nationals."
PA