They no longer arrive in the kind of numbers that generate newspaper headlines, but Wexford continues to play host to a steady trickle of asylum-seekers.
They come from all over the world - places such as Romania, Russia, Africa, Lebanon, Poland, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Macedonia. Despite some of the headlines which attended an upsurge in arrivals last year, the welcome which awaits them is, by and large, a warm one.
"People here are very nice to me," says Blerim Shallci, who came here from Kosovo a year ago. "I have lots of friends and there are lots of families who come to my house and invite me for dinner. Maybe I can never pay back everything they have done for me.
"Sometimes kids, 15 or 16 years old, will shout something at you in the street, but they are just kids; I said stupid things when I was that age," he adds with a maturity belying his 22 years.
Andrzej Tomczyk, a former shipyard worker from Poland, is equally positive about his experiences since he arrived in November. "The people and the town are very, very good. I like it here."
Blerim and Andrzej are among 93 asylum-seekers living in Wexford, more than a third of whom are Romanian. In a town with a population of 15,000, their presence is hardly visible to the casual visitor.
Yet when large numbers of Romanians arrived at Rosslare port last August, having risked suffocation by hiding in containers on ships departing from Cherbourg in France, concerns were raised about Wexford's ability to cope with the ensuing "refugee crisis". Those concerns were matched in some cases by claims that the arrivals were given preferential treatment to Irish people in need of assistance, and that they lived in luxury apartments at the expense of the State. An editorial in the Wexford People newspaper even suggested some were trying to seduce impressionable young Irish girls in the knowledge that a baby would bring a passport.
"I have no doubt the situation was blown out of all proportion last year," says Mr Niall McDonnell, Wexford County Council's housing officer. "It didn't deserve the publicity it got."
Even when the so-called crisis was at its height, the town had just 200 asylum-seekers living there. This did put pressure on resources, and Mr McDonnell says Wexford would appreciate the co-operation of other local authorities should the need arise in the future. Two or three, and occasionally up to five, asylum-seekers continue to arrive weekly in Wexford. Emergency accommodation is provided by the South Eastern Health Board, working in conjunction with the council where necessary, but almost all move on to private-rented flats or houses. Voluntary agencies are uniting to ensure they are not left to fend alone while their applications for asylum are being processed.
One group attached to the Ferns Diocesan Youth Service (FDYS) has arranged for asylum-seekers to get information about their legal rights and has also organised English classes, with voluntary teachers. Get-togethers have also been arranged for women asylum-seekers who sometimes feel particularly isolated.
One of those involved, Sarah Kearns, says the group began to act when "we noticed there was a lack of information and support for asylum-seekers in Wexford". The FDYS group recently came together with other organisations and individuals involved in supporting asylum-seekers so that activities could be co-ordinated in future. The agencies involved include the South Eastern Health Board, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Amnesty International, Wexford Area Partnership, local clergy and some local councillors, voluntary teachers and asylum-seekers themselves.
Most people in Wexford agree the atmosphere in the town has improved since the controversies of last July. However, at least some of those who claimed last year that asylum-seekers were getting favourable treatment are standing over their remarks. Alderman Padge Reck, an independent member of Wexford County Council, says that last summer, France was "off-loading illegal immigrants on to Ireland, and particularly Wexford".
"If I hadn't called a halt and if the People newspapers hadn't called a halt at the time, we would have been overrun," he claims.
Mr Reck continues to insist that asylum-seekers receive better treatment from the South Eastern Health Board than locals do, a claim which is denied by the health board. A spokeswoman pointed out that in a typical week recently, 1,660 cheques were issued to people in Wexford by community welfare officers, who administer the supplementary welfare and rent allowance schemes. Only a tiny minority of these payments would have gone to the town's 93 asylum-seekers, who rely on supplementary welfare - they cannot claim unemployment assistance because they are not allowed to work.
The spokeswoman also pointed out that all of these payments, and the cost of administering them, are carried by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and are not, as some believe, a drain on the region's health resources.
