Gypsies picket `one-stop' centre

Just a week after it opened, the Department of Justice's "one-stop shop" for processing asylum applications drew its first protest yesterday with a picket by 47 Romanian gypsies who are appealing to stay in the State.

They broke the traditional isolation of Roma (gypsies) from mainstream society to picket the centre in Dublin's Lower Mount Street. Their appeal against the Department's refusal to grant them asylum is due to start next week.

Supporters claim the Department is rushing their case to give a signal to deter other gypsies from coming to Ireland from eastern Europe.

Their case was decided in August, only three weeks after they were smuggled into Rosslare in a freight container. Normally, asylum cases have taken years to process.

Ms Rodica Stana, an 18-year-old who has given birth to a daughter, Elizabeta, since arriving in the State, said she liked Ireland and would like to stay. "If things were as good as this in Romania, we would never have left home."

Mr Pat Guerin, of the Anti-Racism Campaign, claimed the cases were being processed with "indecent haste" and that the Roma had already been deemed to be economic migrants rather than refugees.

The picket was also attended by representatives of Irish travellers. Mr John O'Connell, of Pavee Point, expressed concern about the Department's "fast-track" procedures and what he called a lack of transparency in the process.

A decision in the appeals is expected late next month.