Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I support the noble Baroness’s recommendation, particularly with regard to the specific rights for refugees. Without repeating too much what has been said on previous amendments, I say that the country’s support for the 1951 Geneva Convention certainly requires us to expedite the naturalisation process for refugees. Lengthening qualification periods for them in any way is surely a direct violation. It is vital, for example, that pending claims for asylum count towards the qualifying immigration status, so that refugees can begin to rebuild their lives as soon as they are granted asylum here. Although the amendment is yet another in this same sort of grouping, as the noble Baroness said, I hope that the Minister has picked up the general feeling around the Chamber that there is great unfairness, to put it mildly, in what is going on this Bill.