The number of people seeking asylum at Rosslare has dropped dramatically this year following tightening of security checks, new figures show.
Only 24 people claimed asylum at the Co Wexford port in the first five months of the year, compared with 514 for the same period last year, according to statistics from the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner.
The drop in asylum applications at Rosslare follows document controls introduced last November by Irish Ferries staff in the French port of Cherbourg. Acting on Garda advice, staff have started preventing immigrants with false or inadequate documentation from boarding at Cherbourg.
The Minister for Justice admitted in the Dail last February that people who may be trying to enter Ireland to seek asylum have been turned back at Cherbourg due to the new controls.
Mr O'Donoghue also said that such people could claim asylum in France or the state through which they entered EU territory. However, the Cherbourg measures have been strongly criticised by leading Catholic bishops, who say they amount to "pre-emptive exclusion" of asylum-seekers.
The controls are in preparation for forthcoming laws which will impose fines for carriers transporting undocumented migrants.
The Garda National Immigration Bureau, which advised Irish Ferries workers, has also recently begun advising Aer Lingus staff about how to identify false documents.
Amnesty International in Ireland says it is concerned that the State is making access to its territory - and therefore asylum procedures - more difficult. "Imposing restrictions on entry, such as carrier sanctions, forces asylum-seekers into the hands of unscrupulous traffickers," said its refugee officer, Ms Ursula Fraser.
She said the UN convention on refugees is "rendered meaningless if people in search of protection cannot reach the territories of places like Ireland".
Asylum-seekers are people who claim they are fleeing persecution in their state and want to be allowed to remain in Ireland as refugees.
According to the new figures 3,887 people claimed asylum in the State this year up to the end of May - a drop of 763 on the same period last year. Nigerians accounted for 1,392 claims while Romanians made 499 applications. The Government recently signed an agreement with Nigeria to help to deport unsuccessful asylum-seekers.
Asylum claims made at Rosslare this year up until the end of last month account for 0.6 per cent of all 3,887 applications. This is in sharp contrast to last year, when asylum applications at the port accounted for 13.4 per cent of all claims.
More than two-thirds of asylum-seekers this year made their claim at the offices of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in Dublin's Lower Mount Street. A further quarter made their claim at Dublin Airport, with less than one per cent at the ports of Dublin and Dun Laoghaire and Shannon Airport.
A group of 13 Gambians have applied for asylum in Ireland after being refused entry at Dublin Airport. The group, comprising 12 men and one woman, arrived yesterday without visas and were refused entry, according to the Garda press office. The group then applied for political asylum.