The Government's legal provisions for asylum-seekers fell seriously short of international law on human rights, an audit by Amnesty International Irish Section has stated.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has rejected the statement. He said yesterday there was a comprehensive body of law governing applications for refugee status in the form of the Refugee Act as amended by the Immigration Act 1999, and the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000.
These provided a strong foundation for meeting Ireland's obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention to which the State was fully committed.
In the audit, Amnesty proposed the State refrained from detaining asylum-seekers on grounds which the organisation considered did not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Any asylum-seeker detained should be informed of the reasons and of his or her rights in a language he or she understood. Officials should be fully trained in human rights.
The provision in the Refugee Act that if the asylum-seeker was detained in a prison or other place of detention that he or she would be subject to the same conditions as a person awaiting trial, was clearly not in line with current international standards, the report stated.
The State should strictly apply the Act which prohibited the return of an asylum-seeker to a country where he or she might face serious assault and ensure officials took the risk of persecution fully into account.
Mr O'Donoghue said the wide-ranging Act dealt with decisions, appeals, right to legal representation and provided specifically for a direct contribution to be made by the UNHCR to the determination process.