A decision by the Home Office to block mothers and children in Gaza from joining their families in the UK has been quashed by a court.
Families abroad who have had their applications approved to reunite with loved ones in the UK usually have to undergo biometric checks, including fingerprinting and facial images at a Visa Application Centre. But the VAC in Gaza has been closed since October 2023, and it is difficult to get out of the territory.
The government has an Unsafe Journeys Policy which offers some flexibility in this kind of situation, but has taken a more strict approach to families, often mothers with very young children, in Gaza who are hoping to reunite with husbands and fathers granted refugee status in the UK.
A judge in the immigration court known as the Upper Tribunal has found the home secretary acted unlawfully in the way the policy was applied to two families and has quashed the decision to block them.
Both are young mothers with five children between them aged seven and under, hoping to reunite with their husbands who have been granted refugee status in the UK. Both families are living in dire straits in tents in Gaza with insufficient food, no access to clean water, rodents, mosquitoes, bedbugs and the risk of snipers.
The Home Office says it is looking to appeal against the decision.
An estimated 250-300 families in Gaza who want to reunite with immediate family granted refugee status in the UK are similarly stranded. The Home Office says biometrics should be obtained before families travel. The Foreign Office has said it is willing to evacuate some of these families from Gaza so they can obtain biometrics in Jordan.
In her judgment, judge Fiona Lindsley said that the families are living in vulnerable structures in a war zone, malnourished, unwell and struggling psychologically with anxiety from their husbands and fathers in the UK that they will not survive much longer if they remain in Gaza.
“The best interests of these children should be the primary consideration, and it cannot be in their best interests to be afraid, under-nourished and suffering from diseases of poverty and insanitary conditions without their fathers and no end in sight to that separation,” she said.
Decla Palmer, solicitor at Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit who represents the families, said: “The Home Office is doing everything possible to delay and to defend its unlawful decisions, taking a policy position that blocks people in Gaza who are eligible to come to the UK from being able to do so.
“These families are completely broken – it is difficult to put into words the trauma they have faced and continue to endure. The mothers and children, trapped in Gaza, are suffering each and every day. The fathers, in the UK, are facing the prospect that they may never hold their children again. The Home Office is actively keeping these families apart, leaving them stranded in Gaza in grave danger.”
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On Monday, the Home Office announced refugee resettlement routes including for Palestinian refugees and women from Afghanistan. However, this scheme processes only a few hundred applications each year. It is not known when the much larger Refugee Family Reunion scheme will restart. It was suspended in September 2025. The Refugee Council estimates that since then approximately 20,000 people have been denied family reunion. Initially, the government indicated that new refugee family reunion rules would be introduced in the spring of 2025, but the scheme remains suspended. Home Office sources have indicated that no further details will be announced about this safe and legal lifeline for refugees to reach the UK until 2027.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We will be looking to appeal this decision. Biometrics, including fingerprints and facial images, are a core part of the UK’s immigration system, and their enrolment at a UK overseas visa application centre is a standard requirement when making a visa application to come to the UK.
“The enrolment of biometrics enables comprehensive checks against UK and international immigration and criminal records to identify individuals who may pose a threat to national security, public safety or immigration controls, or who are likely to breach UK laws if admitted.”
