Foster parents are urgently needed to care for the youngest among more than 140 child asylum seekers in Oxford.

The children, some as young as 12, are living in bed and breakfast accommodation or shared houses -- and their numbers are rising.

Oxfordshire social services' family placement team, in Cowley Road, Oxford, needs to find 30 foster homes for those under 16. The older ones will be found bed and breakfast accommodation or places in shared houses.

The team has so far placed 13 children with foster carers, all of whom are families seeking asylum themselves.

A spokesman for social services said the pressure to find these children foster homes would not affect its other work. There are at least 60 carers needed for other children already in council care.

The young asylum seekers are smuggled into the country on the back of lorries. They arrive in Britain without adult supervision and once here, hitchhike to Oxford because of its reputation for having a good support service.

The group is mainly made up of boys from Albania -- although some are girls, and some are from other countries, including Afghanistan.

Family placement worker Linzi Rabinowitz said: "It's hard to say why the numbers are increasing in Oxford recently.

"These are very vulnerable young children. Because they have come from very difficult situations it's hard to ask why they're leaving their home countries.

"A lot of them are here because they're orphans or can't trace their family members and want to find a more peaceful place. They are clearly very resourceful to have made their way here. Oxford is a place they hear about through word of mouth."

Bed and breakfast or shared housing are only emergency measures while the family placement team establishes links with potential foster carers. The children are supervised while in emergency accommodation and are placed in schools.