The warning came as 161 people displaced by the Syrian conflict and who have arrived in Ireland as part of the longstanding UNHCR resettlement programme have begun to move to different parts of the country having undergone initial language and orientation programmes.

Doras Luimni, which supports immigrants and asylum seekers in the Limerick area, ran an ‘Anti-Rumours’ project from the middle of 2014 until earlier this year, in which it addressed common misconceptions about refugees and migrants.

The project was aimed at younger people and addressed issues such as ‘Ireland can’t afford to take in any more refugees’.

Another rumour it sought to counter was that ‘All Muslims are terrorists’, using simple data and factual information.

However, the project ended as funding ran out.

Doras Luimni spokesperson Aideen Roche said the expected arrival of refugees from Syria had prompted misinformation on the subject which sometimes veered closer to racism.

“We are hearing a lot more of it online,” she said.

Ms Roche said some of the comments have been “nasty”, and can appear in comments section in media websites or on social media platforms. “Some of it is directed at us,” she said, adding that some of the comments were “depressing”.

More than 1,000 people took part in the workshops, and Ms Roche said even though funding had run out, Doras Luimni had continued to respond to requests from schools and elsewhere to engage in more events.

She said that by drawing correlations between Limerick and the experiences of young people there, it had been easier to put across the message that refugees should not be “labelled’.

“Young people from disadvantaged areas in particular know how it feels to be labelled and to face prejudice, when we make the link between that and negative stereotypes of refugees, migrants, and the Muslim community, we find that we can make progress pretty quickly,” she said.

Ireland is still awaiting its first arrival of Syrian families as part of the EU’s relocation programme, which will disperse families currently in refugee hot-spots such as Greece, with arrivals due in the new year.

Under the existing resettlement programme, 129 people had arrived here by December 14, and just last week, another 32 people from Syria, but who had been in camps in Jordan or Lebanon, arrived. The recent arrivals are being accommodated at a reception centre. The programme began in 2000 and up to December 14 last, 1,314 vulnerable persons from 27 different countries have been resettled here.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Justice: “Some are medical cases and their families who have been accommodated in Dublin in close proximity to hospitals to cater for their medical needs. Forty eight of the refugees have completed their language training and orientation programmes and have been moved to permanent accommodation in Thurles, Portlaoise, Killarney and Tralee.”

Six families were due to be moved to Cork.

Another six families displaced by the Syrian conflict arrived at the Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre at the Clonea Strand Hotel in Dungarvan on December 17 and are due to begin their language training and orientation programme in the new year before being transferred to permanent accommodation.