Foreign workers have been given work permits for companies which do not exist, in a fraud being investigated by gardai.
Gardai say they have learned of Pakistani men paying up to £10,000 each to agents involved in falsely obtaining permits from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The businesses named on the work permits included builders and meat processers around the State, according to the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
Det Insp John O'Driscoll said they were "investigating a situation where we believe people have entered this State with work permits issued on the basis that they would work for companies which we now discover do not exist".
He said people were paying agents between £8,000 and £10,000 for a package to leave Pakistan and come to Ireland to work. They believed they were genuinely going to get a job and only when they arrived in the State did they learn the work they came to take up did not exist.
"This is the promised land for them but some of them are finding that once they arrive they are left wandering the streets without a job," he added.
Det Insp O'Driscoll said three men, one Irish and two Pakistani, were arrested this week in connection with this type of fraud. He said officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment had been informed of the fraud.
A small number of such permits had been discovered and the Department's files would be reviewed to see how many more had been issued, he added.