Mr Juca Gogu (35), who arrived here from Romania last Saturday, was at the Refugee Application Centre in Lower Mount Street yesterday morning for the second day in a row.
"They gave me this," he said, gesturing with a single piece of A4 paper. It contained a blunt message: "Eastern Health Board, `Social', No service at this building," followed by a freefone number.
The notice was also taped up on a window beside the entrance to the centre. A security guard was directing people with social queries away while allowing people with queries for the Department of Justice to come in.
Those who had been near the centre since early morning said that at its height, at about 8 a.m., the queue numbered some 120 people. When the doors opened just after 9.15 a.m. there was some commotion as officials emerged to hand out the sheets of paper.
New asylum applicants would be seen, they said. It took about 30 minutes to explain the situation to everyone in the queue, after which about one-third left. People were then allowed in batches of three and the queue subsided quickly.
At about 10 a.m. a heavily-pregnant young woman arrived grasping the hand of a girl aged about five. She was handed the information page and told the centre was closed to her. She took the girl's hand again and walked away, shaking her head.
Asked whether he had money for food, Mr Gogu said: "No. I have nothing. Yesterday I ate a little. Today, I think, nothing."
