MONMOUTHSHIRE councillors have pledged to work towards making the county a welcoming place for asylum seekers.

The county is likely to begin receiving refugees in the New Year, and council chiefs say the area must be prepared for their arrival.

Monmouthshire is part of a consortium of 21 Welsh councils that has agreed to take asylum seekers under the government's dispersal programme.

The programme aims to ease the pressure on London and the south-east of England, where many asylum seekers stay.

Council leader Andrew Crump told the full council: "The council will and must play a role in making them feel as welcome as possible."

The deputy leader of the council, councillor Alan Breeze, said if asylum seekers came to the area it would not be the first time in Monmouthshire.

He said: "In 1980 we had Vietnamese boat people in two houses in Abergavenny and they integrated very well."

Councillor Andrew Arkell said that people in the public eye should not refer to the issue of asylum seekers as a "problem".

He added: "It is not a problem. If we start calling it a problem we are setting out to make it a problem."

The council also heard from Eid Ali Ahmed, the development and finance manager at the Welsh Refugee Council.

Mr Ahmed was educated at Allt-yr-yn College in Newport in the late 1970s but returned to the UK as a refugee in 1987 from his home in war-torn Somalia.

The council's head of housing, Richard Moses, said: "The contract the consortium has with the National Asylum Seekers' Service to accept asylum seekers is due to come into operation in mid-January. We do not know at this stage when Monmouthshire will receive asylum seekers after the contract comes into operation.

"We have agreed to make available ten properties which means that we could have a maximum of 30 people in the county.

"The housing could be council properties or from other providers but we have not yet identified where they will be."

Corporate director of social services, Colin Berg, said: "I am pleased the council is taking a positive view on this."