A call for people to challenge myths that asylum-seekers receive grants to buy cars and get free mobile phones and extra welfare benefits has been made by the Irish representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees.
Ms Pia Prütz Phiri said that emotive and inaccurate debate on asylum and immigration made asylum-seekers and refugees more vulnerable to racist abuse and violence.
The myth of the so-called "influx" or "flood" of asylum-seekers was contradicted by figures which showed that, between 1995 and 2000, returning Irish migrants accounted for some 50 per cent of the total immigration into Ireland.
Ms Phiri was speaking at the publication yesterday of a leaflet on myths and misinformation about asylum-seekers produced by the Government's Know Racism programme and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.
The chairman of Know Racism, Mr Joe McDonagh, said that dispelling myths and misinformation was one of the most important challenges of the programme.
Some 1,530 asylum-seekers were granted refugee status in the past two years and a further 850 people were recognised as refugees in the first five months of this year.