Refugee Council criticises new immigrant rules

The Irish Refugee Council says new rules to be applied to non-nationals today will confuse the asylum issue further.

Following a Supreme Court judgement, immigrant parents will no longer be able to apply for residency here on the basis that their children were born in Ireland.

James Stapleton of the Irish Refugee Council says affected refugees are now confused about Irish laws and are in a state of limbo.

He says the issue of refugees has still not been cleared up.

Mr Stapleton expressed his surprise that the Government brought in these rules without proposing how to deal with the backlog of immigrant applications.

Presently, 10,000 applications for residency, based on parentage, have been lodged this year.