THOUSANDS of asylum-seekers face eviction from government-funded accommodation from today because they are from EU accession countries now assumed to be safe for their return.

Refugee agencies yesterday forecast that many would be forced on to the streets because they have been banned from working in Britain until today. The Government said that the asylum-seekers had been given sufficient warning and that local authorities had the power to provide temporary housing in extreme circumstances.

Most asylum-seekers are dispersed around the country and housed while their cases are assessed. There are at least 2,500 asylum-seekers from new EU members, many of them Roma alleging persecution in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

Kent County Council houses several hundred but none has taken up an offer to be transported back to Eastern Europe.

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, the council leader, said: “The Government warned us only four weeks ago that they were going to stop the grant they pay us for accommodation and looking after these asylum-seekers, so we then had to write to landlords.

“This is now a very serious situation. It is very hard for them to find work because many do not have passports . . . If they fall destitute on the street we assume the Government must have some plan.

“Some have been here for three or four years so their appeals should have been dealt with by now.”

Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, gave warning of a potential race relations backlash. She said: “There is a crisis brewing which is wholly avoidable. It is totally unrealistic to expect asylum-seekers to find work and housing overnight, not to mention trying to do this on a Bank Holiday.

“Many families including those with young children will find themselves homeless. Would it really hurt to let these families stay in their homes for a few more weeks while the adults find a job?” Mr Justice Collins gave warning in the High Court on Thursday that there could be an “intolerable burden” of publicly funded legal challenges if the Government did not guarantee accommodation.

A Home Office spokesman said that its offices would remain open over the weekend for advice, adding: “No one will be asked to leave their accommodation until they have had a chance to make representations to us.

“The situation is that as of May 1 any support they were receiving, quite rightly, will end as they will cease to be eligible. They will have three choices. The first is to go home or leave for another EU country. The second is to register as workers under the scheme for new member states. The third is that if they remain in the UK they must be self-supporting. Those are the options.”

The spokesman denied that the change in policy would leave families on the streets. “Local authorities have powers to provide temporary accommodation for families in extreme circumstances,” he said.