Thirty-five Nigerian nationals have been deported from the State on a chartered aircraft, the Garda has confirmed.
The flight left from Dublin at 11.40pm last night. A Garda spokesman said 16 men, 10 women and nine children were on the flight chartered by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).
Reports today indicated that up to 80 Nigerian people were due to be deported.
It is understood that some of those deported are "aged-out" minors who initially arrived in Ireland unaccompanied by adults. They have now turned 18 and are no longer in the care of the Health Service Executive.
Immigrant support groups have expressed anger at the move, claiming a lack of transparency in how decisions are made on people's applications for leave to remain here on humanitarian grounds.
Irish Refugee Council chief executive Peter O'Mahony has written to the Tánaiste to express such concerns, and he described as "very troubling" the apparent inconsistencies in the criteria applied by the State in deciding who should qualify to stay in Ireland.
The Dún Laoghaire Refugee Support Group claimed that a woman whose baby died here last year was to be among those deported.
The Green Party called for a review of the deportation process following the deportation.
The party's justice spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said he was particularly concerned at the deportation of a man who was to sit his Leaving Certificate exams in June.
"There are also reports that the parents of children who were strongly integrated into schools and communities around Ireland are among those who have been deported," Mr Cuffe said.
"I am disturbed at the lack of compassion and humanity shown by Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice. Such powers should be given to an independent agency that would hopefully exercise more compassion and humanity over individual cases."
Mr Cuffe called on the Minister to publish the criteria for deportations as "many of the decisions seem to have been made on an ad hoc basis".
"Representations by local communities appear to have had no influence over deportation decisions. I intend to table questions to the Minister for Justice next week on the issue."