Growing numbers of young asylum-seekers are being left in "limbo" because they are not eligible for State-funded legal assistance with their refugee claims, it has emerged.
The problem arises with asylum-seekers who claim to be aged under 18, but who refugee officials determine to be adults.
If claimants continue after this determination to insist that they are aged under 18, the Refugee Legal Service (RLS) says it cannot provide them with State-funded legal assistance, as its lawyers are not permitted by law to take instructions from minors.
This has prompted refugee support groups to seek changes in the law to allow young people whose age is disputed to nevertheless have access to solicitors in the RLS, a branch of the Legal Aid Board which offers State-funded assistance to all asylum applicants.
Mr Frank Brady from the RLS said where applicants considered by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner to be adults continue to say they are minors, "we cannot provide them with legal services because we cannot act if someone is not competent, as a minor is, to give instructions".
In such cases, applicants are left "in a kind of limbo in that they don't have legal services for processing their asylum claims unless they go to a private solicitor", he added.
However, the commissioner's office said it had been its experience that the RLS has represented asylum applicants who have not been accepted as minors. "This office and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform have not been notified of any change in policy in this regard by the Refugee Legal Service," it said in a statement.
Mr Brady acknowledged that a "handful" of asylum claims by such applicants had been handled by his office in the past, but this was no longer the case. He said the number of people coming to the service claiming to be minors, but who ORAC had determined were adults, doubled recently to about 50 per month.
Ms Cabrini Gibbons, the Irish Refugee Council's legal officer, said it was "extremely important that these young people are in a position to obtain legal assistance one way or another from the Refugee Legal Service".
She added: "The statutory provisions have to be examined in light of the current situation."
A total of 503 separated children, also known as unaccompanied minors, presented to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) in the first seven months of this year, new figures show.
Of these, 431 were accepted as minors and referred to the East Coast Area Health Board, which makes an asylum claim on their behalf, thus allowing them to be represented by the RLS. The remaining 72 were not accepted as minors, but have applied for refugee status nevertheless.
Age testing of people claiming to be minors was based on voluntary bone density examinations under a pilot system which was ceased in March 2002. While more reliable ways of assessing age are being explored, experienced ORAC officials are instead currently conducting interviews with people who they suspect are not minors.
The numbers of separated children arriving in Ireland has increased significantly since 1999, when there were 32 documented cases. By March 2003, a total of 2,717 separated children were registered in the State. Of these, 1,316 submitted applications for asylum. Around 40 per cent of the children have been reunited with family members here. More than two thirds are aged 14 years or older. There are concerns that adults claiming to be minors could be inappropriately placed in shared accommodation with children.