Socialist TD Ruth Coppinger has described direct provision centres as “Magdalene Laundries.”

“The idea that people should be forced to live in these humiliating and degrading conditions, for any length of time at all,” Ms Coppinger said.

The centres have been used to house asylum seekers in Ireland. Those living under the system are given an allowance of €19.10 a week and banned from taking up paid work while they await the processing of their cases for asylum. However, many individuals and families have ended up living in the centres for years.

“People who seek asylum in this country should live in a normal environment while their application is processed,” Ms Coppinger said.

“It really is time that we recognised that this is a Magdalene laundry, in fact some of them are even living in convents,” she added.

Last week a mother and son lost their legal challenge to the direct provision system. The High Court rejected the claim that the direct provision system was in breach of the Constitutional or the family’s human right, when imposed over a lengthy period of time. However, the court did find that there was no justification for some of the house rules in their accommodation and rules of the State’s asylum seeker accommodation network were unlawful, such as ‘no gusts rules’ in resident’s rooms and daily requirements to sign on.

The applicants in the case, known as CA and TA, have been living in the Eglinton Centre in Galway since mid-2011, argued that communal living and dining breached their privacy rights, but the judge found that this applied to several instances in which the state provided accommodation, including homeless shelters and retirement homes.

The case is due to come back to the court next month to assess what more might be done to address the situation.