A new coalition has been set up to campaign against the threatened deportation of hundreds of Irish-citizen children with their immigrant parents.
The establishment of the group comes amid reports that some immigrant families who have recently been informed they could face deportation have panicked and gone missing.
At least 700 families have been issued with letters in the past fortnight telling them the authorities wish to deport them, and giving them three weeks to make a final application for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds.
This move follows the annulment of thousands of outstanding residency applications which had been made by non-EU immigrants on the basis that they had become parents of children born in Ireland.
It had been the practice in recent years that such immigrants would be granted residency rights upon the birth of their children, who are entitled to citizenship.
However, this has been reversed since a Supreme Court ruling last January that parents of Irish children do not have an automatic right to remain in the State.
There are some 11,000 outstanding residency claims from parents of Irish-citizen children, dating back to September 2001.
The coalition of refugee support groups and community action groups claims the Department of Justice has "criminalised" people through issuing the recent letters.
A spokeswoman for the coalition said it was alarmed that these notices had been sent out when the Dáil and the courts were in recess and many solicitors were on holiday.
There had been no consideration for the future of children who will be forced to leave the country along with their parents, she said.
The coalition claims that some of these children will not be accorded citizenship in their parents' countries of origin, including Kenya and Sudan. It has pledged to support test cases challenging the lack of State-funded legal assistance to parents in making leave applications.
It also says it hopes a test case will be be taken in relation to the safety of deported Irish-citizen children, beyond consular assistance guaranteed by the Government. The coalition will also hold public information meetings for immigrant parents of Irish children.
Meanwhile, immigrant support groups say there is "absolute panic" among people who have received letters from the Department.