Charities urge UK to lift ban on Gaza students bringing families
Universities and aid groups say rules preventing dependents from joining Gaza scholars risk harming education and safety as dozens are evacuated to Britain
Charities and universities are calling on the UK government to change rules that bar Gaza-based students from bringing their families with them to study in Britain, arguing the policy is excessively harsh. Last week, 34 Gaza students with scholarships at British universities were evacuated ahead of starting their studies.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said it was excessively harsh to tell students fleeing the devastation in Gaza that they must leave loved ones behind even as they begin a course. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said the government aims to bring people who can study, not to cause them further pain or hardship, by requiring dependents to stay behind.
Oxford University said it was very concerned about restrictions on student dependents and that the policy could prevent Gazan scholars with very young children from taking up places. Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said she had demanded a meeting with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and argued that there is a moral imperative to allow families to be reunited in safety in the UK. "On a humanitarian level, given the horrors that these people have endured, there is a moral imperative that this ask is honoured," she said.
Most international students are now not allowed to bring dependents with them to the UK, but PhD students are still able to bring their families. In the case of the Gaza cohort, the BBC understands that while some children would be eligible for visas to accompany their parents, they would not necessarily be evacuated from Gaza. The policy has particular resonance for Chevening scholars, a largely government-funded scheme for international students to study a one-year master’s degree in the UK.
The BBC understands that a maximum of 20 children would come this year if dependents were allowed for Chevening scholars. There has been at least one exception in the past: Yvette Cooper, when home secretary, allowed a female Chevening scholar to bring her two-year-old child. For Manar Al-Houbi, who would take up a PhD place at Glasgow University, accepting the offer would mean leaving behind her three young children and her husband in Gaza. "We are a family, we are one unit, we cannot be separated," she told the BBC, speaking as a military plane flew over her tent in Khan Younis. She said she had completed her master’s degree in the UK in 2018, describing that period as one of the most difficult of her life because of separation from family.
Lammy told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that the government is "actually dependent on Israeli permissions to bring people out and that has not been easy to get". Still, he added that the aim was "to bring people who are able to study - not to cause them further pain or hardship" by leaving family behind.
Last week, a group of severely ill children arrived in the UK from Gaza for urgent NHS specialist medical care.
Israel launched a major ground offensive on Gaza City on Tuesday. On the same day, a United Nations commission of inquiry found Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as distorted and false. Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to an attack led by Hamas militants on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 65,141 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.