About 250 Nigerian fathers of Irish-born citizens are claiming to be on hunger strike, following orders that they report to gardaí at their hostels twice daily.
They claim they are being held under virtual house arrest by having to sign in every morning and evening and fear that this is a first step towards deportation. They have all applied for residency on the basis of their Irish-born children.
These men arrived in Ireland earlier this year to be reunited with their families, after Minister for Justice Michael McDowell opened applications for residency from parents of Irish-born citizens.
A department spokeswoman said there was confusion as some men had moved to a new phase of the appeals process and had been asked to sign on with a garda in the evening, instead of with a hostel official in the morning.
There may have been some overlapping with the process in the first day she said, but nobody was now being asked to sign in twice daily. But Fredrick, a spokesman for the group, last night insisted he and most of the group had signed in twice daily for the past two days and were told to do the same today.
The hunger strike began among more than 70 residents at a guesthouse on Lower Gardiner Street on Thursday and yesterday spread to a hostel in Lower Hatch Street which is home to nearly 200 Nigerians.
The department spokeswoman said the number on hunger strike was closer to 100 than 250.
About 70 Nigerians took part in a protest outside the Garda National Immigration Bureau on Burgh Quay in Dublin yesterday.
The Residents Against Racism group led the protest which was also supported by the Union of Students in Ireland, Sport Against Racism and trade union officials.
Fredrick, who did not want his surname published in case it affected his residency application, said the men had wives and children all over Ireland and were unable to visit them as they had to report to their hostels twice daily.
"We want someone from the Justice ministry or the immigration bureau to sit down with us and clarify what is going on. What are they planning? We don't know," he said.
The department spokeswoman said the men should ask for clarification from bureau officials when they signed in. But Fredrick said they had done this and had been told that the officials were just there to oversee the process.
