The 41 asylum seekers from Afghanistan who are holding a hunger strike in St Patrick's Cathedral have said they will stay until they get justice, or die.
The men began their protest on Sunday afternoon. They took up seats in the cathedral transept during Sunday service and then told church authorities they intended to remain.
The group, aged between 16 and 45, have been living in Ireland for between one and five years. All are seeking leave to remain in the State and claim their action was precipitated by several of their applications for refugee status being turned down recently by the Office of the Refugee Appeals Commissioner.
Most of the group were trafficked into the country, travelling out of Afghanistan to Iran, Turkey, Italy, Germany and France before reaching Ireland.
One of the group, a 17-year-old, was taken to hospital yesterday with kidney problems.
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev John Neill, visited the men yesterday and said their actions were not appropriate because the cathedral does not have the facility to cope with the group. However, cathedral authorities said there is no question of asking for the men to be removed.
Several organisations have come out in support of the men, including Residents Against Racism and the People Before Profit Alliance.
Osman Hotak, a spokesman for the group, said the Refugee Appeals Commissioner has not given full attention to their applications and has unlawfully refused most of them. He appealed to "the people of Ireland to help them on the grounds of compassion".
Samandar Khan, a 19-year-old asylum seeker, said his father was killed in Afghanistan and he fled the country. He said that they did not bring any women with them because they were trafficked into Ireland, which was too dangerous for women.
"When you cannot have your rights in an office, the church is the best place to come," he said.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said the asylum system "doesn't work on who decides to occupy a church or who decides to go on hunger strike".
"We don't deal with people in the lump so to speak. We deal with every individual case," he said. "I would just ask the public to bear in mind that although there are disturbances in Afghanistan, that doesn't mean that anybody has a right to come and live in Ireland."
In 2003, up to 300 Afghan asylum seekers went on hunger strike in a church in Belgium to protest at the rejection of their asylum applications.
The Belgian interior minister allowed them to remain so that their files could be reviewed.