Non-EU immigrant parents of Irish citizen children who have applied for residency in the Republic are concerned and confused following this week's landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Immigrant support centres said they received many inquiries yesterday from people in similar situations to the two families at the centre of the court case, who now face deportation.
Mr Latif Serhildan, from a centre in Cork, said people who had made contact were worried about what would happen them and their children. "Some people have been waiting for more than a year for a decision so they are worried this is going to affect them."
Mr Serhildan added that some people had been encouraged to withdraw their refugee applications once they applied for residency as the parents of Irish citizen children.
"Some lawyers have been telling them before that it will process faster if they withdraw from the asylum system."
Refugee status, based on a recognition that someone has fled persecution, is a permanent and more secure status than residency, which is annually renewable.
In the past two years some 9,662 people withdrew their asylum claims on the basis of parentage of an Irish-born child. The authorities have said anyone who had withdrawn their asylum claim before it was concluded could apply for refugee status afresh.
Father Michael Begley, of the Spiritan Asylum Seekers Initiative, said: "There's a lot of worry out there because a judgment has been issued but people aren't sure how to interpret it in terms of how it applies to them." Some were so upset they would not talk about the issues, while others "haven't a clue what it means and didn't even know about the ruling".
For the period 1996 to 2001, a total of 4,853 people were granted leave to remain in Ireland on the basis of having an Irish-born child.