Planned fines for carriers transporting undocumented migrants will lead to more refugee deaths, leading non-governmental organisations have warned.
The proposed new carrier sanction laws will "drive refugees into the hands of ruthless traffickers and smugglers and lead to more horrors like the Wexford tragedy", according to the coalition of NGOs.
The group, which includes the ICTU, Amnesty International, Comhlβmh and the Irish Refugee Council, is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, about the terms of the Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Bill.
This legislation will specify on-the-spot fines for carriers, such as airline companies and road hauliers, found to be transporting people without papers.
Mr O'Donoghue says Ireland is the only EU state which has not introduced such legislation.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said yesterday that the Bill would be introduced in the new year.
However, the legislation has been flagged already on several occasions; Mr O'Donoghue himself had already announced its imminent introduction in November 1999 and again in November 2000.
According to yesterday's statement by the NGOs, the proposals would put airlines and their staff at risk of breaking international law.
"Untrained airline and ferry staff will be forced to make life-and-death decisions about who is allowed to travel to Ireland. People fleeing torture or death have the right to have their asylum claim determined by relevant Government bodies, not the employees of carriers," it said.
"International standards of refugee protection recognise that people fleeing human rights violations are rarely in a position to obtain the proper documentation. Sometimes the need for flight is so urgent that to do so through normal channels is impossible."
The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Donnacha O'Connell, said there was no obligation on Ireland to introduce the carrier liability legislation that exists in other countries.
The EU was creating "an outer frontier" to exclude people using private interests such as the employees of ferry companies and airlines.
This was further undermining the existing "minimal integrity" of the asylum process.
Under the Dublin Convention, the Irish authorities are entitled to send back would-be asylum-seekers arriving from, say, France or Britain to have their applications dealt with in the original EU state of entry.
Sister Joan Roddy of the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace said some people might wish to seek asylum in an English-speaking country.
"Asylum-seekers have enough obstacles to cope with without also having the barrier of language," she said.
