Gardai descended on the extended Rostas family's roadside ghetto shortly after 5am yesterday morning. Rosanna Flynn, of the Residents Against Racism group, branded the huge garda operation, which involved up to 50 officers, as "disgusting".

"It's absolutely shocking what is going on, " she said. "We appeal to the minister for justice to take the Rostas into proper accommodation first.

Then they should investigate what is going on in Romania and get an undertaking from the Romanian government that they will be properly treated when they go back there. By staying at the roundabout they have highlighted the fact they are treated so badly at home that the dreadful conditions on the roundabout are better."

At 4.45am yesterday morning, the Sunday Tribune met members of the Rostas family standing on the slip road leading from the M50 to Ballymun, trying to get early morning drivers to pull in and give them money. With little English, "No food, need money" were among the few words they said to the Sunday Tribune.

The Rostas are living in complete squalor. In conditions that resemble a refugee camp during the Bosnian war, they sleep in makeshift huts and tents that have been constructed by throwing plastic sheeting and election posters over the bushes and branches in the shrubbery on the side of the M50. The smell is gut-wrenching.

Early morning traffic rushes by with taxis taking late-night revellers home and early morning workers to their workplaces as the Rostas emerge from their sleep. The sound of aeroplanes overhead and the noise from the articulated trucks passing on the M50 serve as reminders that this is not a scene from a previous century.

Shortly after 5am yesterday, a convoy of squad cars and garda vans came from nearby Santry garda station to the Rostas' makeshift camp.

They closed the roads around the two separate camps, where over 50 members of the Rostas family have been living since shortly after they arrived in Ireland in May.

The convoy consisted of members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau, many of them dressed in the white jumpsuits and face-masks usually worn by garda forensic officers. They spent over an hour visiting the encampments.

Acting under the direction of the superintendent at Santry station, the gardai, who were accompanied by translators, served a total of 86 people with immigration papers at the M50 camps and at a derelict house on the Old Swords Road.

The move came just days after Pavee Point, the travellers' support group, and the Crosscare agency highlighted the Rostas' plight and called on the government to provide emergency accommodation for them. Ronnie Fay, director of Pavee Point, reiterated her call yesterday after the gardai swooped.

Although Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU last January, their citizens do not enjoy the same rights here as citizens from other EU countries. Romanians are entitled to travel to Ireland without a visa but they are not allowed to work or receive social welfare payments in Ireland due to measures imposed by former justice minister Michael McDowell to restrict "welfare tourism".

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the Rostas were informed yesterday morning that Minister Brian Lenihan was considering making removal orders from the state, under European Law relating to the free movement of persons on public health and financial grounds.

The Rostas now have 15 days to make representations to the minister as to why he should not issue a removal order against them.