Paramilitary organisations must lift all expulsion orders before any further consideration is given to an amnesty for those "on the run" - OTRs - according to the Labour leader Mr Ruairí Quinn.
He was reacting to a report in yesterday's Irish Times which said 683 people were told to leave Northern Ireland by paramilitary groupings and that 331 paramilitary beatings were carried out, an all-time high.
Mr Quinn criticised those who, he said, were associated with paramilitary organisations and who were quick to level accusations against the security forces but yet were silent in the face of what he called "the massive abuse of the human rights of a large number of people from within their own communities".
Referring to the Weston Park talks last summer, Mr Quinn said the British and Irish governments considered an amnesty for those on the run. He said progress on this should be conditional on the paramilitaries withdrawing all exclusion threats.
Unionists and the SDLP also criticised plans for an amnesty. The North Belfast Assembly member, Mr Alban Maginness, told The Irish Times: "The SDLP has a problem with selective amnesties on the one hand and the failure on the part of paramilitaries, particularly the IRA, on the other, to lift their expulsions of people from our community . . . It is also inconsistent for Sinn Féin to tolerate expulsions and yet demand as of right the return of people on the run to our society without let or hindrance."
The Ulster Unionist MP for Lagan Valley, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said: "Terrorists are seeking an amnesty so that on-the-run suspects can return home. Yet they continue to send into exile hundreds of people who are no longer able to return home to their families."
Figures relating to expulsions and beating were collated by Base 2, an organisation run by the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. It handles referrals from the Housing Executive, Probation Board, churches, social services and voluntary bodies.