The Irish Refugee Council says it is disturbed by a raft of last-minute amendments to refugee law introduced this week to a Bill currently before the Oireachtas.
The council says the proposals for "super-fast" processing of refugee claims are regrettably based not only on speed but on a "culture of disbelief".
The planned changes are contained in amendments to the Immigration Bill 2002, which will also introduce fines for airlines and ferry companies carrying undocumented migrants to the State.
The changes include extended detention periods for asylum-seekers and a "super-fast" refugee determination process for asylum-seekers from countries deemed safe. Applicants from safe countries would have their claims processed within weeks instead of the current months.
The council says the amendments are substantial changes to refugee law and were brought in at short notice and with "minimal scope for input from relevant players".
"While we welcome a commitment to speedy processing of asylum cases, the proposed 'super-fast processes' are regrettably based not only on speed but on a 'culture of disbelief' whereby most asylum-seekers are presumed to be abusing the system," its chief executive, Mr Peter O'Mahony, said.
"This procedural development, already implemented by other EU states, has severely compromised the capacity of states to correctly assess the need for protection. Rather than the focus of the procedure being on identifying persons in need of protection, it has shifted towards techniques devised to screen out as many applications as possible."
The proposed extension of the time allowed for the detention of asylum-seekers from consecutive periods of 10 to 21 days is a further unnecessary curtailment of their freedom, he added.
The Labour Party's Seanad spokeswoman on justice, Ms Joanna Tuffy, accused the Minister for Justice of seeking to stifle debate on a Bill which "flies in the face of" the Geneva Convention on refugees. The last-minute amendments could not be fully digested and argued before the Bill goes to Committee stage in the Dáil next week, she added.
The Irish Refugee Council's quarterly magazine, Asyland, will go on sale next Friday in 20 Easons shops for €3. The publication covers issues relating to asylum-seekers, refugees and migration in general, and aims to promote informed public debate around the issue of migration in Ireland.