A MALVERN woman has issued a plea asking residents to offer a welcome and support to asylum seekers rather than the cold shoulder.

More than 20 homes may have to be set aside for asylum seekers in the Malvern Hills ready for the group of about 500 people expected to arrive in the county in October.

But rather than turning their arrival into a source for concern, Heather Williamson, of Churchdown Road, is urging Malvern people to respond in an "open-hearted" way.

Mrs Williamson was a member of a support group formed about 20 years ago to welcome a group of Vietnamese "Boat People" who had been rescued from the China Sea by the ship Sebonga.

"There was a wave of public sympathy for these Vietnamese families who were fleeing political oppression and persecution," remembered Mrs Williamson.

"Three families came to Malvern and a charity helped them kit out their houses with furniture and local people looked around for what they had to offer. It was a total culture shock for them because they didn't have much command of the language and some of the children had quite serious health problems. They were proud and diligent and suddenly found themselves cast onto people's charity," she said.

"I became very friendly with the Ngo family and the father was an extremely clever man who was reduced to being on the dole. The housing they were offered was pretty grim so far from coming from poverty to affluence it was the other way around," said Mrs Williamson.

The children went to the local schools and Mrs Williamson, chairman of Chase governors, said several went on to higher education.

"In retrospect I think it's very important young people nowadays should be prepared to grow up in a multi-cultural society and learn tolerance. It happens less easily in a place like Malvern where we don't have a great ethnic and cultural mix.

"We should try and react positively to these newcomers and I would hope there would be a similar response to that of 20 years ago."