About three to four Syrian families could be housed within the Dover district over the next month, according to the council’s leader Cllr Paul Watkins.

The announcement was made as part of leader’s time at a full council meeting last Wednesday.

He said the allocation would be catered for if the council is required to take them in.

Confirmation has also been given that privately rented houses across the district have been earmarked for these families to live in.

The leader stressed that the families will not be placed in council or housing association properties.

Dover District Council will take in a total of 12 asylum-seeking families as part of the wider Syrian crisis.

Cllr Watkins, who is also the chairman of the South East Partnership for Migration was at a meeting on Thursday.

Local authorities met with Home Office officials and parliamentary Under Secretary of State minister Richard Harrington who is looking after the process.

Cllr Watkins told the Mercury: “The meeting was to coordinate how local authorities numbers are holding up and asking the authorities as to whether the process in place is working.

“From Dover’s point of view we have enough, but it is now the process of the mentors and the provision of other services that are sort of holding up the refugees coming into the area.”

'It is now the process of the mentors and the provision of other services that are sort of holding up the refugees coming into the area.' - Cllr Watkins

There are 40 other councils who will also welcome in Syrian families who are fleeing their war-torn country.

Nationally the country will be taking about 400.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced in September that by 2020 the country will house 20,000 refugees.

Cllr Watkins previously said: “Their health needs will be met and the refugees will be dispersed equally throughout the district.

“They will be fully integrated over a period of time.”

Checks will be made overseas to ensure that each person that is offered help in the district is Syrian and in need.

They will be eligible for benefits, health care and given the option to work.

He added that this is a “one off” Syrian crisis issue and that Dover on its own “certainly is not a dispersal area for asylum seekers.”