Home Office Unlawfully Blocks Gaza Children From Joining Families in UK

The Home Office is refusing to allow mothers and their children trapped in Gaza to join family members in the UK, even after a judge said the government’s position is unlawful.

The two women, who have five children between them aged seven and under, were told to submit biometric information as part of a security check to obtain family reunification visas.

But the application centre where they would need to submit fingerprints and other information has been closed since the start of Israel’s genocide in October 2023.

On 30 September, a judge in the upper tribunal’s immigration appeals court ruled that the Home Office, by refusing to waive the biometric requirement for these families, had unlawfully applied its unsafe journeys policy. 

In her ruling, judge Fiona Lindsley said the mothers and children – who have been granted anonymity – “have too little food and are suffering from malnutrition. They dare not go to US aid collection points as they are aware that people have been killed by Israeli forces at these places.”

She said the children’s fathers, who are based in the UK, were also suffering severe psychological hardship. One has been diagnosed with PTSD due to his experiences in Gaza “coupled with the continuous threat” to the survival of his wife and children, she added.

The Home Office says it will appeal the judge’s decision. But the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), which represents the families, said that process will further delay reunification and put the families “in grave danger” in Gaza.

“The children are all traumatised,” said Decla Palmer, a lawyer from GMIAU. “They have gone to bed every night to the sound of bombs, suffering from nightmares, with rats and mice crawling around their tent. The mothers are completely exhausted and without hope.”

“Every day the families remain in Gaza, they are at risk of death,” said GMIAU.

Surgeons who have worked in Gaza have said Israeli forces deliberately and systematically kill children. Dutch newspaper Volkskrant last year published testimony from doctors who had encountered at least 114 children with multiple bullet wounds in the head and chest.

A Home Office spokesperson told Novara Media that “enrolment of biometrics enables comprehensive checks… to identify individuals who may pose a threat to national security, public safety or immigration controls.”

Ghassan Ghaben of the British Palestinian Committee, an advocacy group, said the government was applying a double standard against Gazan families.

“The UK has shown in other situations that, when there is the political will, rules can be adapted to the realities of war – and in this case, genocide,” he said. “The Ukraine Family Scheme recognised that ordinary immigration procedures were not appropriate in the circumstances and enabled people to reunite with their families.”

Since the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukrainians and their children have been able to live and work in Britain under special temporary humanitarian visas.

“Palestinians have been asking for a similarly practical response since 2023, yet the response has instead been to maintain or introduce even stricter barriers,” said Ghaben.

He added there was “a real contradiction” between the shift in rhetoric about Gaza from Andy Burnham’s Labour government and its treatment of the families. 

“The home secretary has recently announced the reopening of the UK Resettlement Scheme, and spoken about creating safe and legal routes for people fleeing persecution,” he said.

“Yet at the same time, the Home Office is continuing to fight against the reunification of Palestinian mothers and young children with their fathers who are already in the UK.”

During the genocide in Gaza, the UK has allowed weapons sales to Israel, flown spy flights over Gaza, allowed military planes to depart from its bases bound for Israel and refused to investigate British nationals who joined the Israeli military.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood was accused last month of giving people in Gaza “false hope” after announcing a new safe route to the UK for Palestinian refugees. The route only applies to those who have already escaped to Lebanon or Jordan and will benefit only a few hundred people a year.

Last year, the government suspended a programme that allowed people granted asylum in the UK to bring their family members over.