Gardaí have been accused by an immigration lawyer of singling out black people for document checks on the Belfast to Dublin train purely on the basis of their skin colour.
The discrimination charge comes from a solicitor from the Northern Ireland Law Centre, who said she witnessed two black men being taken from the train at Dundalk while other passengers were not checked.
Ms Maura Hutchinson said she was deeply concerned over how immigration controls are enforced following the incident last February, which she understands was not an isolated one.
Ms Hutchinson has written to gardaí and equality bodies in the North and South about the incident in which two black men were taken off the train at Dundalk station by four immigration officials .
The solicitor wrote to Dundalk gardaí saying that while she appreciated their duty to enforce immigration control, she was "deeply concerned" at the way this was taking place. "These men were identified purely due to the colour of their skin, which is clearly discriminatory and would appear to be an arbitrary abuse of your powers," her letter states.
Dundalk gardaí have firmly rejected the claim that they select people on the basis of their skin colour for document checks. In his response to Ms Hutchinson, Supt Michael Staunton said the vast majority of foreign nationals who enter or attempt to enter the Republic do so via the North, with quite a few using the train.
Supt Staunton accepted the officers did not ask every passenger on the train for identity documents, but carried out checks "on persons whom they suspected to be in breach of the relevant legal provisions".
The officers concerned were acting "on reasonable grounds to suspect that the persons in question were entering this jurisdiction in breach of the relevant immigration provisions."
Garda officers "do not select people on the basis of the colour of their skin, but rather on the basis that they believe/suspect, with reasonable cause, that a particular person is in breach of the relevant provisions of the various orders made under the Aliens Act," his letter added. Because of the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland, citizens travelling to the Republic from the North do not need passports. Most non-EU citizens require visas or passports to enter the Republic.
Det Chief Supt Martin Donnellan, from the Garda National Immigration Bureau, said Ms Hutchinson's letter was based on her interpretation of what she saw that day. The two individuals concerned were found to be in breach of immigration law and were returned to the UK, he added.