A court has granted Palestinian refugees the right to live in the UK after they applied through a scheme created for Ukrainians fleeing the war against Russia.
The family of six from Gaza – a mother, father and four children between seven and 18 years old – had reportedly applied to the Ukraine Family Scheme asking to join their brother already living in the UK, but the Home Office rejected their application.
An immigration judge has now ruled that this rejection breached the family’s human rights.
The decision came despite warnings by Home Office lawyers that this case could open the floodgates ‘to the admission of all those in conflict zones with family in the UK’, according to the Telegraph.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said this case illustrated that changes to human rights laws were necessary so that decisions on who could live in the UK are up to Parliament and not individual judges.
They family said the Ukraine Family Scheme best fit their circumstances after their home in Gaza had been destroyed in an airstrike and they were facing daily threats to their lives from further attacks in the refugee camp were they were living.
The scheme allowed Ukrainians and their family members to find refuge in Britain if they have a relative who is either a UK national or settled in the UK.
It closed last February, nearly two years after it was set up in March 2022.
The family of six from Gaza had reportedly applied to the Ukraine Family Scheme asking to join their brother in the UK, but the Home Office rejected their application (file image of Palestinians in a refugee camp in Gaza)
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp (pictured) said this case illustrated that changes to human rights laws were necessary so that decisions on who could live in the UK are up to Parliament and not individual judges
They family said the Ukraine Family Scheme best fit their circumstances after their home in Gaza had been destroyed in an airstrike and they were facing daily threats to their lives from further attacks in the refugee camp were they were living (file image of a Gaza refugee camp)
The family allegedly argued that their application, which was submitted in January 2024, should be granted despite clashing with the scheme rules because their situation was so ‘compelling and compassionate’.
An immigration tribunal initially refused the claim because the scheme for Ukrainians did not apply to the situation of the Palestinian family.
The judge ruled that it should be up to Parliament to decide which countries should benefit from resettlement schemes.
But this decision was overturned by judge Hugo Norton-Taylor at a higher-level tribunal.
He granted the Palestinians the right to live in the UK with their brother under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which outlines the right to a family life.
Judge Norton-Taylor reportedly said that the family’s ‘extreme and life-threatening’ situation was outweighing the ‘public interest’ of rules regulating the entry to the UK.
The Home Office said that the ruling was not equivalent to a resettlement scheme for people from Gaza and that it would contest similar claims to that of the Palestinian family of six in the future.
Shadow secretary Mr Philp criticised the ‘alarming and dangerous’ ruling, telling the Telegraph that it provides ‘a basis for anyone in any conflict zone anywhere in the world with relations in the UK to come here’.
