THE British Red Cross has been accused of putting asylum seekers before the elderly people of Worcestershire.

Days after the Government earmarked a site at Throckmorton for refugees, a meeting was called at Adelaide House in Malvern to announce the charity was abandoning the care home.

The Board of Trustees of the Red Cross told residents and families it was hoping to find someone to take over the Park Road building, which is currently home to about 12 elderly women and was bestowed to the charity.

"We feel it's totally unfair that the Red Cross is abandoning these decent elderly citizens in favour of asylum seekers," said a Worcester woman whose 90-year-old relative has lived in the home for seven years.

"Many relatives are alarmed by the news as they fear their loved ones could lose their homes - I thought charity was supposed to start at home," said the woman, who does not want to be named.

"When my relative moved into the home she was told the fees would not increase more than her pension - but if it changes hands she may not be able to afford to stay on. It's a real worry."

Dorothy Terry House, in Redditch, is another home which the Red Cross is planning to pull out of.

A recent report entitled Who Cares? put out by the charity revealed that last year it assisted 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers - a 60 per cent rise on the previous year.

"Of all new services developed by the British Red Cross during 2001, around one in eight were for refugees and asylum seekers, showing this as a priority", said the report.

"We intend to hand over the management of the homes to other care providers, or local authorities," said a Red Cross spokeswoman.

"We are not just going to close them."

She said the charity wanted to refocus on other areas such as first-aid training, helping people to trace families and support for people who need help for independent living.

"We have been helping more asylum seekers as there is a growing number coming into the country," she said.

"But we still provide a lot of services for British people, including the elderly."