The Government's policy of dispersing under-age asylum-seekers throughout the State to areas where they have no access to legal advice or other essential services has been condemned by the Irish Refugee Council.
The council said yesterday the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum had more than doubled over the past six months and it wants action now before a crisis situation develops.
"There are accidents waiting to happen because sufficient preparations have not been made in advance of dispersal," Ms Sara MacNeice, a legal officer with the council, said.
She confirmed there were now 87 minors seeking asylum in the State, two of them aged 12, three aged 14, eight aged 15, 27 aged 16 and the remainder aged 17.
She is extremely concerned that they are not being informed of their rights on arrival. These include a right to legal advice before they fill in applications for asylum and a right to education.
They should be assigned a guardian, a social worker, an interpreter where necessary, and be placed in accommodation with people of a similar cultural background and age, Ms MacNeice said.
"We want the Government to put adequate procedures and services in place for separated children," she said.
Five of the separated children who have arrived here, including two 17-year-old Nigerian girls who spoke to The Irish Times, were dispersed to areas outside Dublin to facilities Ms MacNeice described as "totally inappropriate".
Suliat and Funmi, who did not want their surnames published, arrived in Dublin on January 24th and after a short conversation with a social worker at the Refugee Applications Centre in Lower Mount Street were put on a bus to Ennis.
There they were accommodated in a hostel occupied by both sexes and shared their room with eight women.
One of the girls is heavily pregnant, but nobody suggested she see a doctor.
Ms MacNeice said there was a lack of co-ordination between the various State agencies dealing with refugees. Nobody informed the Mid Western Health Board that the girls were on their way to Ennis, and there was nobody to offer them counselling to get over their trauma.
The girls decided to return to Dublin, where they are now staying in a flat with a Nigerian family.
Since arriving in the city they have been put in touch with a social worker, and Funmi has attended the National Maternity Hospital for a check-up. Her baby is due in five weeks.
However, since they have left the accommodation provided for them, their £15 weekly social welfare payment has been withdrawn.
Ms MacNeice said the Irish Refugee Council accepted that everybody could not be accommodated in Dublin and that some form of dispersal had to take place. However, children should not be dispersed to areas without adequate preparation being made, she said.
"This case is a classic example of dispersal gone wrong. You cannot treat separated children in the same way as adults."