BURY is preparing to welcome 150 Kosovar refugees who should arrive within days.

And residents will be asked to come forward and volunteer to help the traumatised people seeking a safe haven in the borough.

A team of social workers, health service staff and interpreters is being assembled to care for those fleeing the Balkan war, many of whom are likely to be children and old people.

Town hall bosses are meeting with council leaders across Manchester today, May 14, to thrash out the details of where they will be staying.

One of the places being considered is the Geoffrey Kershaw Centre, which might be turned into a reception centre where most of the arrivals will be given temporary accommodation.

Councillor Derek Boden, leader of the council, hoped that Bury folk would give the refugees a warm welcome.

"Anyone who has turned on a TV set in recent weeks cannot fail to have some sympathy with people whose families have been disrupted, members murdered, fleeing for their lives while leaving others behind. It's a terrible dilemma to be placed in. "Whatever difficulties we have locally, we would be failing as human beings if we did not offer some help."

Most of the refugees will be women, some in their 70s, and very small children.

Coun Boden said: "After a while, we would want to place them into smaller units of accommodation when those become available.

"They desperately want to go back home, but with the devastation there, that will take quite a while even if there's an agreement allowing them to return."

Coun Boden also anticipated Bury taking in more refugees in the coming weeks. "With so large a number of people involved, our plans have to envisage more people coming later on."

The Home Office will pay for the accommodation to be brought back into use, but Bury will pick up the tab in the interim for other costs such as extra staff. Like other councils, it will press the Government to be reimbursed later.

WITH the imminent arrival of the refugees, an appeal has been launched for speakers of Albanian.

This is the language spoken by some of the child refugees and Bury Council is urging anyone who can speak it to volunteer their services.

Volunteers who can work with children or who have experience of teaching English as a foreign or additional language are also needed. For further details contact 253 6423.

AN appeal for volunteers has also been launched by Bury Council for Voluntary Service (CVS). Contact Ina Cornall on 764 2161.

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