Building new accommodation centres for large numbers of asylum seekers in rural areas will increase rather than reduce community tensions, according to the British Red Cross.

Spokeswoman Virginia Beardshaw said the government had ignored the advice of her charity and other refugee agencies on this issue.

What we have suggested is that there are rather smaller centres in more cosmopolitan and urban areas

Virginia Beardshaw British Red Cross

They had warned that the plan to site centres in Bicester, Oxfordshire; RAF Newton, Nottinghamshire and Throckmorton, near Pershore, Worcestershire, was doomed for failure.

Meanwhile reports claim that thousands of asylum seeker children who have arrived in the UK without their parents are to be dispersed across the country.

The government's accommodation centre policy has provoked protests from thousands of villagers living close by the chosen sites, which will each house up to 750 people.

Isolating policy

The British Red Cross has asked to meet with Home Office ministers to explain its concerns, but so far its requests have met with silence.

Ms Beardshaw stressed: "In our judgement and the judgement of all the other refugee agencies, who have been asked to give advice on this question, there are two problems.

"We believe it will increase, rather than reduce community tension and secondly, we think it will increase the isolation and dependence of refugees who after all will be living in those centres for six months or more."

Toyah Willcox: "The residents are not racists"

By choosing rural locations for the sites, the government had "ignored the advice of, not just ourselves in the British Red Cross, but of all the relevant refugee and asylum seeker agencies", Ms Beardshaw said.

"What we have suggested is that there are rather smaller centres in more cosmopolitan and urban areas.

"We believe that those would be a lot easier to staff. We would be able to find volunteers to assist more easily and there would be more appropriate resources available in the community, notably relevant agencies.

No debate

"We also think it would be easier for mainstream schools, training and health services to cope.

"We are also very worried on the education front because we are seeing, across all of Europe at the moment and all Red Cross societies in Europe experiencing the same thing, an increase of women and children as asylum seekers. Education is quite crucial.

"We haven't been able to meet Home Office ministers as yet, although we have still tried to... we have been asking," added Ms Beardshaw.

Campaigners in Worcestershire have formed an action group - Protest at the Asylum Centre at Throckmorton (PACT) - and have enlisted help from local resident and former pop star, Toyah Willcox.

She insists: "The residents are not anti-asylum seekers and they are not racists."

'Action plan'

Residents near the planned sites fear there could be a repeat of the fire that damaged much of the government's flagship asylum centre, Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire.

The protesters claim to have the backing of asylum seekers themselves and organisations such as the Refugee Council.

According to The Guardian newspaper, the government has a secret "action plan" to achieve a "radical reduction" in the number of asylum seekers by sending thousands of under-18s to places away from London and the south east.

The proposal, which has been criticised by the Refugee Council, is one of a number the Home Office is said to be considering, including the reimposition of �2,000 fines on lorry drivers who bring in illegal entrants.

Terry Smith, head of the Refugee Council's children's section, told The Guardian: "Policy should be driven by what is in the best interests of the child...

"It is not just about putting a roof over their heads and leaving them with no backup or support."