Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, with this amendment, we return to the situation of the Chagos islanders, who were expelled from their homeland 40 years ago and are still hoping that, with the help of world public opinion, they will be allowed to return. We support that demand, but in this amendment we are concerned only to protect the citizenship rights of the children born to parents who were themselves born in the Chagos Islands—thus, all of the first generation born in exile. Those children would be entitled to register whether the parent was a man or a woman and whether or not the parents were married. In addition, the amendment gives an entitlement to register to the children of those who registered under Section 6(1) of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002. Such people, those born on or after 26 April 1969 and before 1 January 1983, became British citizens by descent on registration. They therefore cannot pass on their nationality or citizenship to their children and need the provision if their children are to be protected. When the noble Lord, Lord Brett, responded to a very similar amendment in Committee, he acknowledged the powerful arguments for those concessions and agreed that we should hold discussions to see whether the matter could be resolved. We had very useful conversations, for which I am grateful, which gave me the opportunity to deploy the case at greater length. However, in the end, I am sorry to say that government inertia has prevailed. The noble Lord wrote to me on 20 March, "““whilst the government has not sought to justify the actions taken in the 1960s and 1970s it maintains the case that its obligations, ""legal and otherwise, have been settled by previous compensation awards and by the grant of British citizenship under the British Overseas Territories Act 2002””." To us, this is a matter of principle. The islanders and their children should have the same rights as they would have enjoyed to transmit citizenship to their children as they would have had if they had not been evicted. That is the least that we can do short of allowing them to return. For this amendment, we have the support of Mr Olivier Bancoult, who was meeting Foreign Office officials just the other day, as well as that of Mr Allen Vincatassin,, the leader of the Crawley group of exiled Chagos islanders. One of the unfortunate consequences of the present situation is that families are split. Those who are British can of course come to the UK, but they can bring members of the family who are not British here only if they can demonstrate that those close relatives will have no recourse to public funds immediately on arrival. In some families, that has meant that only one parent can come to the UK to work until they can afford to support their spouse, but there are many who cannot or will not leave their partner behind—and why should they? However, the chances of saving enough in Mauritius to meet the public funds test are slim, and the community there remains very impoverished. The letter from the noble Lord, Lord Brett, refers to the hardship that resulted from what he calls the resettlement of the islanders, but the Government have not lifted a finger to correct the effects of exile in nationality law since Parliament persuaded them to insert Section 6 into the British Overseas Territories Act 2002. Our amendment seeks to rectify that position. I beg to move.