The Home Office has decided it could strip parents of benefits -- forcing them to leave faster -- if the welfare duty is satisfied by taking their children into care. Ministers hope that, threatened with destitution and the break-up of their families, failed claimants will take "voluntary" flights home. Families not going voluntarily would still face eventual deportation.
Refugee charities have warned that social workers could be reluctant to co-operate in removing children for immigration reasons.
"This is just inhumane," said a spokeswoman. "When you are talking about taking children away from families, that's the point at which the Government has to stop and look at what it is doing in human terms. Social services are under plenty of pressure; this is putting the problem on to social workers."
The plan was only slipped out for consultation in October, when Westminster was distracted by the Tory leadership drama, leaving too little time to lodge proper objections, she added.
Maeve Sherlock, director of the Refugee Council, said the plan glossed over real failings in the asylum system, such as failure to deport people with no right to stay.
The pressure group Liberty, meanwhile, said there was a "distinct possibility" of a challenge under the Human Rights Act.
However, the Home Office insisted the measure would affect only those who had exhausted all appeals, with care proceedings a last resort.
"We want to encourage more people to take up the voluntary route, which is easier for people than if it gets to the stage of having the return enforced. We would not want children to be made destitute as a result of the actions of their parents."
Children taken into care could become liable for deportation on reaching adulthood.
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