The Archbishop of Canterbury, has appealed for tolerance towards refugees in the wake of the Kosovo tragedy. Dr Carey made his call only hours after the announcement that Britain is to accept a first group of 120 refugees from the Balkans.
During a visit to an immigration centre at Gatwick Airport today (Wednesday 21 April) he appealed for public support for genuine refugees and asylum seekers.
Dr Carey said:
"If the tragedy of Kosovo yields anything positive, I hope it may include a wider recognition that people still have urgent need of sanctuary and refuge, and that we as a caring and relatively wealthy nation, must be ready and willing to offer it to them.
"I hope the government will act in the full spirit of this reality. I believe they will deserve our strong support in doing so. I commend the steps taken so far."
A Lambeth Palace Spokesman said Dr Carey supported a policy of caring for refugees from the Kosovo crisis as close to home as possible, while offering assistance further afield, including in Britain, as necessary. Dioceses are already closely involved with the Home Office, and refugee agencies in earmarking possible accommodation.
While touring the privately operated Tinsley House Detention Centre at Gatwick, Dr Carey also referred to the government's controversial new Immigration and Asylum Bill. He said: "To the degree that the current system is not only inefficient and open to abuse and exploitations, it is bound to erode public confidence and support that is so vital in this field. A more efficient and responsive system must be in the interests of everyone.
"But efficiency must not be at the expense of the genuine needs of those seeking help and protection. Deter abuse of the system by all means, but do not impede those in desperate and genuine need of assistance. A developing culture of hostility and suspicion towards newcomers would do little to help salve the wounds of Kosovo."
Dr Carey set his call for tolerance against the background of his broadcast New Year message to the nation, which focussed on refugees and asylum seekers:
"It seemed to strike a chord - albeit a somewhat dissonant chord with a few. They even went so far as to suggest that in this day and age there could hardly be such a thing as a genuine refugee or asylum seeker - they were virtually all, it was implied, bogus - merely economic migrants, or worse, cynical scroungers. That is not a view I share."
Dr. Carey also referred to the powers of detention in the new government bill:
"I have no doubt that detention is a necessary power but I am equally convinced that it should be invoked as sparingly as possible. When it is used, it must be done in a manner that is fully sensitive to what may be the very distressing circumstances of the individual concerned.
"Because detainees are not "our" citizens it does not mean they are second class citizens. They have rights too, and those rights in some cases may well have been abused in quite traumatic and damaging ways.
"Detainees must be entitled, at the very least, to treatment equivalent to that afforded people charged with criminal offences, including the presumption of innocence. I would like to see a system in which detention has to be justified and tested in all cases, in which a time limit has to be specified, and which offers stronger commitments concerning the legal representation of detainees at bail hearings."
Earlier, Dr Carey took a leading part in a special service to officially open a new chapel at the detention centre, which can accommodate about 160 detainees, many of whom were in the congregation.