A new report claims that asylum-seekers are financially worse off than homeless people in the existing social welfare system due to the direct provision system.
The report, Discrete Discrimination, published yesterday by the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), calls on the Government to abolish direct provision for asylum-seekers claiming it represented an "inhumane policy".
According to the report, homeless people who are provided with bed and board in a hostel are entitled to additional social welfare payments of at least €60.
However, under direct provision, asylum-seekers housed in similar circumstances only receive "comfort money" of €19.10 (for an adult) or €9.60 (for a child).
The report concludes that direct provision is "gravely detrimental to the human rights of a group of people lawfully present in the country and to whom the Government has moral and legal obligations under national and international law".
At the launch of the report, FLAC's chairwoman, Ms Siobhán Phelan, said direct provision represented an "inhuman policy" and, in legal terms, was "very dubious".
She suggested that the provision may be unconstitutional because it was brought in on a non-statutory basis - introduced in 1999 by a ministerial circular rather than by legislation.
Ms Phelan added that it discriminated against a class of people and "fetters" community welfare officers who are prevented from using their discretion, on a case-by-case basis.
Under existing legislation, social welfare provides a supplementary allowance of up to €124.80 to anyone who does not have sufficient means to meet their needs.
As asylum-seekers are not allowed to work, they fall within this category. However, direct provision excludes them from applying for the allowance.
The president of the Human Rights Commission, Dr Maurice Manning, who launched the report, praised the publication because he said it challenged the adoption of entrenched attitudes.
"Its recommendations are clear and unambiguous and represent a very important intellectual and principal contribution to a debate that is urgent but which up to now has been conducted largely on an ad-hoc basis," he said.
The report's editor, Ms Eleanor Edmond, said she used the comparison with homeless people to reveal the extent of the discrimination which existed within the system. "I'm not saying the situation of a homeless person is perfect," she said.
The report is also critical of the only part of direct provision so far to be put on a statutory footing.
Section 13 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, which was enacted in May, means that asylum-seekers who leave their assigned accommodation will not be entitled to claim rent allowance.
Mr Ruslan Tsechoev, originally from Chechnya, who attended the report's launch, spent 9½ months in Mosney under the terms of direct provision.
"Most asylum-seekers find themselves isolated from Irish society," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said it had not yet received the report.
However, he emphasised that as well as providing high-quality accommodation, funds for asylum-seekers also went towards education, transport and free legal aid.