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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I support all noble Lords who have spoken. At Second Reading, I asked the noble Lord, Lord West, to assure the House that the comments by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the Bill would be taken seriously by the Government and I asked him whether he would look again at the points raised to see what could be done to improve the Bill and make it more in accordance with the refugee convention. There was understandably no reply at Second Reading because the Minister had too many questions to reply to, but I hope that in his reply to these amendments the noble Lord will give a positive response. The UNHCR is a UN body and its comments should be taken seriously. These amendments have its support. In particular, the UNHCR briefing states that refugees should not be penalised for illegal entry and that any such penalty should not affect the qualifying period for naturalisation. We are talking here about refugees—people who have fled from appalling circumstances—and, as the noble Lord, Lord West, said in the Second Reading debate, ""each case, no matter who they are, is a personal tragedy".—[Official Report, 11/2/09; col. 1209.]" I hope that we will get a favourable response to the amendments.