Why are there still no safe routes to the UK for Gazan civilians trying to join their families here?

The war in Gaza rages on with no end in sight. After more than a year of relentless bombing, civilians face their second winter trapped in a dire humanitarian crisis. For people in the UK hoping for their family members in Gaza to be evacuated here, hope is waning.

From the very beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, there has been almost no safe route to the UK for Gazans seeking respite with their family here. There appears to be no political will to make any humanitarian response to this clear humanitarian crisis. We know that where there is such a will, then the UK can, and does, open routes to those in need: for example, the very welcome Ukraine and Afghan schemes, have seen over 240,000 people arrive in the UK to seek safety and respite.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have committed only to assisting a very specific and limited category of individuals in Gaza, who must already have permission to live in the UK.

The effect of this is that the majority of people in the UK seeking reunification with their family in Gaza are left with almost no options to assist their families in a time of crisis.

This abject failure to react with any sense of urgency or seeming compassion means that British citizens or long-term residents in the UK are left powerless to help their family members who are living in appalling conditions and face serious threats to their safety and wellbeing.

With no available schemes, Gazans must apply under one of the existing routes under the Immigration Rules, such as for family visas (which are only for partners and children under 18, are costly and include strict eligibility requirements), or make applications for permission to enter the UK ‘outside the Immigration Rules’.

The applications

We are actively working on applications for individuals and families in Gaza who are seeking reunification with family members in the UK to make applications on an ‘outside the Immigration Rules’ basis, on compelling compassionate grounds and on the basis of their human right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The applicants include elderly and unwell parents, and very young children.

We began our work on these cases in December 2023, with a sense of optimism that there would be a policy initiative to help British citizens sponsor their family members out of Gaza given the hardship, displacement and threat to civilian life there, or at least, a compassionate approach to individual cases. We could not have been more mistaken. To date not one of our clients has been issued with a visa to come to the UK. The applications have been met with obfuscation, obstacle and opposition by the Home Office at every step of the way. The unimaginable level of fear and anxiety experienced by our British clients for their loved ones has, therefore, been compounded by frustration and incomprehension at the position taken by the UK government.

In some cases, we remain without decisions after many months, despite already successfully challenging the Home Office’s unlawful delays in decision making. Where we have had decisions, every application has been refused by the Home Office. The refusal letters make for very difficult reading, with apparently pro forma wording, placing the need to maintain immigration control before the lives of a small number of vulnerable children and adults.

Once in court, the government are fighting these cases hard. The strength of the family bonds are dissected, questioned and criticised. In every case, the Home Office instruct King’s Counsel to appear at the first tier tribunal. To put this into perspective, in typical immigration and asylum cases they are usually represented by a non-legally qualified presenting officer.

The government’s inaction and the Home Office’s approach to these very compelling cases is denying Gazan civilians a chance of reaching safety and being reunited with their families. The government have the power to change this: they could open an immigration scheme, they could devise a policy, they could give compassionate and open-minded consideration to individual applications. They choose not to do so.

All the while the missiles continue to rain down on Gaza.