The Supreme Court judgment in the Anisimova case is expected to clear the way for a wave of deportations of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants, according to official sources. Taken together with new immigration controls and the Government's failure to implement refugee legislation, it marks a further tightening of the screw on would-be asylum-seekers. The authorities are clearly determined to make Ireland harder to get to and harder to stay in.
In the words of one refugee lawyer last night, "Fortress Ireland" is now a reality.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, will tell the Dail today that about 4,500 asylum-seekers have registered here so far this year, about four times the number recorded in the whole of 1996. The backlog of cases which have not been processed stands at over 3,000.
The judgment accords with the provisions of the Dublin Convention, which was introduced last September. In most cases, this agreement commits the EU states to processing an application for asylum in the first country in which people set foot.
However, most asylum-seekers arrived here before the convention came into force and would not automatically have been bound by its provisions.
Ms Olga Anisimova and her young daughter will be asked to leave the State in 10 days, according to a spokesman for Mr O'Donoghue, who promised the judgment would be implemented "to the letter". But many more, mostly from Central Africa and Eastern Europe, are likely to follow in her steps.
They include about 60 people who, like the Anisimovas, were refused the right to apply for asylum here because they had already passed through another EU state. Most were waiting on the result of this test case.
Beyond this are the thousands of people who have been allowed apply for asylum. One legal source suggested last night that the Department may simply refuse to entertain these applications if the person has already been through another EU state.
Against this is the statement by the Supreme Court that the rules of natural and constitutional justice must apply. Lawyers take this to imply that decisions about refugees must be reached on a case-bycase basis.
Because of a dispute over free legal aid for asylum-seekers, the legal representation in such cases is less than ideal. "Criminals have access to free legal aid, but refugees and asylum-seekers who have committed no crime don't," says Mr Khalid Ibrahim of the Association of Asylum-seekers and Refugees.
The Anisimovas will have the right to apply for asylum in Britain, as will any immigrants deported under the "first safe haven" rule.
This perfectly suits an island such as Ireland. It is very difficult to get here without first passing through another EU state, and we have virtually no air or sea links with the developing countries from which most refugees come.
But behind the tangle of laws lies a human story in each case. Ms Anisimova has been here almost two years; her daughter has been enrolled in a Dublin primary school for most of that time.
An economist by profession, she bases her claim for asylum on the fact that as an ethnic Russian in Moldova she is being persecuted and has suffered physical assault.
Now that the Irish authorities have refused to listen to her case, she faces deportation to Britain and yet another round of asylum and court hearings.