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Destitution among asylum seekers is a "time bomb", a leading campaigner has warned.

The government’s policy of denying support to failed asylum seekers who refuse to go home was increasing destitution, said Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action.

Destitute asylum seekers were left to "drift about" and forced into illegal working and even prostitution, he added. To compound the problem they are expected to arrange their own passage home and are unable to appeal against the decision to deny them support.

"This destitution will be a moral challenge that we will be reckoning with year on year," he told delegates at an Infolog Training conference on asylum support last week.

He said that destitution would become the "hottest issue of the year" as many other asylum seekers were being made destitute by section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. This section denies support to asylum seekers who fail to make their claim "as soon as reasonably practicable".

The policy of denying support to failed asylum seekers who refuse to go home is to be extended to cover their families under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Bill, which is currently going through parliament. This, controversially, could result in their children being taken into care.

Buchan added that asylum seekers are often viewed unsympathetically by the legal system, whereas in other cases where victims’ claims are hard to prove they are given more credibility.

He questioned whether the "pendulum" would ever swing the other way for asylum seekers, but felt positive comments by politicians at the conference meant "perhaps there is a political space opening up where that is possible".