MARANOA Mayor Rob Loughnan has not ruled out whether the region would accept refugees from Syria, but said he would need the community's support before doing so.

The debate over where Syrian refugees, who are fleeing the crisis in their own country, should be settled has reached south-west Queensland.

Cr Loughnan's comments come after Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown said he would apply to the Federal Government to have 1200 refugees re-homed in his region.

Cr Loughnan said Roma's empty housing situation was not as bad as Chinchilla and Dalby's.

However, he said the lack of employment opportunities would disadvantage any immigrants who moved here.

"There's positives and negatives associated with a subject such as this, and even long-term we all want to help people when they are down," he said.

"I don't think it will ever be a popular thing (to debate) when there is no promise from employment.

"They're not going to step straight into jobs and I'd rather see people taking up work and leave these immigrants to go to larger centres where there are more employment opportunities."

Cr Loughnan said he would only consider it if members of the community brought a proposal before council or approached him.

"If I was hearing from the community I could make that approach but until then I'm not going rush into anything like that," he said.

"It would be interesting to hear about our own immigrants and I reckon it would be similar to most other people - without employment it can become quite a lonely place.

"People are happiest when they working."

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