In a report filed on Febrary 2,2003,The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says asylum seekers
should be detained in secure accommodation initially.
The new head of the Church of England reportedly said it would
be "perfectly reasonable" for those hoping for asylum in Britain to
be kept secure while their applications are being processed.
His comments are likely to spark a fresh row over the controversial
issue and come less than a week after Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith
called for a similar policy. The Government has previously dismissed
such ideas as ineffective and impractical.
Dr Williams said an inadequately handled influx of asylum seekers
could generate a sense of a "foreign presence" around them.
He said he was against the notion of prison camps but said secure
accommodation was "perfectly reasonable...so long as we can guarantee
an equitable arrangement for processing applications."
Dr Williams also warned of the dangers to security saying it "only
takes a very small number of terrorists" to come as asylum seekers.
He added: "There's got to be a security agenda. It's a very unsafe
world and there's no way around that. The challenge for any
responsible Government is to be absolutely serious about security."
However, the Archbishop warned the issue is hampered by a lack of
resources and in danger of having people "locked up in hermetically
sealed compartments for an indefinite period."
The Government has faced huge difficulties finding sites for centres
to hold asylum seekers.
It is awaiting the verdict of a planning inquiry over plans to
construct a 750-bed centre at Bicester in Oxfordshire and last month
was forced to delay proposals to house 110 refugees at the three-star
Coniston Hotel in Sittingbourne, Kent after an outcry locally.
Join New Vision UK email list,access web site from list
