THE FOURTEEN MIGRANTS who were found in the back of a lorry that arrived in Rosslare are to be given legal aid to consider whether they can apply for asylum here.

Yesterday, 12 men and two women were found in the back of a lorry that arrived off a ferry in Rosslare Port. They were contained in a refrigerator trailer but are believed to be in good health.

The CEO of the Immigrant Council of Ireland Brian Killoran told Morning Ireland today that the information was scarce, but they could be eligible to apply for asylum here if they haven’t been registered in another EU country.

The 14 people are believed to be of Iranian, Afghani or Kurdish backgrounds, he said, and there was one child travelling with their parents.

What happens now?

“It is their right to seek protection of the state,” Killoran said. “They will be assigned a legal representative and look at their individual circumstances so generally it’s based on what their background is.

So if they’ve applied for asylum in another European country it can be the case that they are returned to that European country. If they haven’t been registered anywhere else it could be the case that they can register here in Ireland.

“Hopefully that will be the case that they can apply here in Ireland, that they don’t have to go through any further ordeal to be returned again, to Greece or to Italy for example.

We’re dealing with people who’ve come all the way from Afghanistan, all that distance: they’ve face a tremendous ordeal to get as far as they have.

He says that this incident was just one example of the “lack of a European response” to the migrant crisis that hasn’t relented in severity.

#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you Support us now

Ireland has accepted less than a quarter of the 4,000 refugees it committed to resettling under international relocation programmes since 2015.

Over the weekend Ireland accepted six teenagers who lived in the dismantled Calais Jungle in France.