UK Parliament / Open data

Immigration (Discharged Gurkhas) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I speak in a personal capacity in support of the Bill and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Lee of Trafford, on bringing it to the House. As he said, I have had some experience of working and serving with those wonderful people. I picked up the Bill only a few days ago but was amazed at some of the figures that I found and that he just told us about. The situation is an insult to the Gurkhas who are unable to come to this country voluntarily and straightforwardly—those who retired before 1997. I see no logic in it whatever. In fact, there is no logic in it. It is just a straight insult to a group of probably the most loyal, worthy and brave people who have ever served this nation. They have many VCs and, as the noble Lord said, have served for over 200 years all over the world; indeed, now they are serving in Afghanistan. They have not given us up, so why are we giving them up in this rather unpleasant and unnecessary way? When we look at the numbers concerned, the situation is extraordinary. As a percentage of total immigration figures or anything you like—choose any number from the national budget—what is the cost of accommodating 10,000 Gurkha families? Because they retired before 1997, it has to be a diminishing figure. That is the way life is; we get old and die and cost nothing when we are dead, pretty well. I simply do not follow the logic of the Government sticking with their position. I strongly support the amendments that the Bill will achieve to the 2004 provisions.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
703 c491 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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