Vasyl (26) has never seen his three-month-old daughter, Vica, writes Kitty Holland.
"Yes, of course, I would like to go back and see her. And my girlfriend, Natasha, would like me to go back, but she says, 'Not without money'." To do so, he says, would be to put his family in danger. To leave Ukraine last November, he borrowed almost $4,000 to hand over to the Vittor recruitment agency.
He borrowed it, he says, from criminals and could not contemplate returning without the means to repay the debt. A market trader at home, he made about €20 a month.
He and his co-nationals who have fallen prey to the same fraud are desperate to stay in Ireland.
"We are here for just one reason, to work, work, work," he says. "We are ready to do anything. We can do cleaning, building, paint, work in factories, in bars or cafes. That is all we want."
To do so they need a potential employer to apply for work permits to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment before their visa extensions expire in the next few weeks.
Like Vasyl and the others, Victor, a retired military airline pilot, does not want his surname published.
"I am afraid my family may have trouble if they [the recruitment agency] see it."
He came to Ireland having spent "all my savings" and having borrowed over $1,000 to pay for, in the end, a fake work permit. He had promised his wife and two sons, aged 15 and 10, it would mean "a good life" if he were to work in Ireland for a year.
Another father, Alex, paid $3,500 to leave his three-year-old daughter, Maria, and his wife for a year. He had been earning €30 a month as an architect.
"We said it was only one chance, a good chance, to go for a year and make some money, just to save, just trying to survive and make a better life."
Alla, a qualified electrical engineer, was promised that work had been arranged for her in the Kylemore bakery. She paid $1,500 and left her sons, aged 17 and 16, expecting to earn about €1,200 a month.
"Of course, I am very upset and very disappointed. And we are scared. too," she says. "We cannot go back to Ukraine without money. We do not know what is going to happen if we don't get work soon."
They all speak of their frustration that the Vittor representative who met them at Dublin Airport is "still walking about the streets", despite their having identified him to the Garda.
Asked whether, as nearly all university graduates, they would find it demeaning to work in relatively low-skilled jobs, they all have the same reaction. "No, it is not about pride. It is about survival. When you have family you forget about yourself and things like pride."