An asylum amnesty for families was announced last month

Under the Home Office plan, parents would be told to take a paid-for "voluntary" flight home.

If they refused they would lose their benefits and their children, under the plan due to be announced on Wednesday.

Amid anger from human rights and refugee groups, the Refugee Action charity said such a policy could be a breach of the Human Rights Act.

A Home Office spokesman said the plan, to be included in the Queen's Speech, would protect children from action against their parents.

It is thought up to 2,000 children could be affected by the proposal, which will form part of the controversial Asylum Bill.

The policy is not designed to make families destitute Home Office spokesman

A Home Office spokesman said the government did not want children to suffer when benefits were withdrawn from their parents.

He said: "The policy is not designed to make families destitute and we do not believe many, if any, people would put their children in this position.

"It is designed as an incentive for people to return voluntarily before removal is enforced.

"In rare cases where it is necessary to end support we would not want children to be made destitute as a result of the actions of their parents so provision would be made to take them into care."

'Desperate measures'

But Refugee Action said it was alarmed by the plan, calling it "inhumane and shameful in the way it targeted children as a way of coercing parents to return".

If they [parents] are genuinely afraid of returning then they may disappear altogether and have no contact with the authorities Stephen Rylance, Refugee Action

Spokesman Stephen Rylance said the policy could breach family rights under the Human Rights Act, prompting costly court cases if it was challenged.

It meant that children who had already suffered the trauma of fleeing their homeland would then be put through the trauma of being separated from their parents, he said.

However, he told BBC News Online that parents could be "absolutely terrified" of returning to their own country and be forced into "desperate measures".

"Parents may believe that it is better for their children to be looked after by the state, and if they are genuinely afraid of returning then they may disappear altogether and have no contact with authorities."

'Distasteful'

Human rights campaigners Liberty also said the legislation could be challenged under the Human Rights Act.

Liberty spokesman Barry Hugill told BBC News 24: "What this is all about is the government looking for sound bites to appear as if it's tough on a perceived problem. It doesn't need these powers.

"I think it is all rather distasteful to start concentrating on children in the hope that you will get good headlines saying how tough you are. It's rather unpleasant."

The Refugee Council said that "breaking up families harms children and should be done only when there is absolutely no alternative".

"The government should abandon this plan and work instead to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the asylum system," a spokesman said.

Amnesty

He told BBC News Online the plan would be the fifth change to asylum legislation in the past decade, and called on the government to put in place "foundations that can endure".

The current system was expensive and there were unnecessary delays in making decisions, which made it "harder to remove people who had put down roots in the UK", he added.

News of the plan comes after Home Secretary David Blunkett announced in October that up to 15,000 refugee families would be allowed to live and work in the UK in the biggest-ever asylum amnesty.

Other reform measures include the prosecution of asylum seekers arriving in the UK without travel documents, restricting the number of appeals to one, and a crackdown on unqualified legal advisers who "abuse" the system.