Reconsider Gaza family case, court tells Foreign Office

BBC News

3 days ago

A Palestinian family who are trying to get the UK government to help them flee Gaza have won a critical ruling in their legal battle.On Monday, the High Court said that the foreign secretary had to "think again" about whether officials could help get the family out.The ruling said the family of six were at "constant risk of injury or death" living in a tent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. They first applied to come to the UK, where they have a British relative, in January 2024. A government spokesman said it was considering the judgment carefully.
The case sparked headlines in February when it became the centre of a misunderstood row at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs).Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer clashed over mistaken and muddled claims that the family had exploited a scheme for Ukrainian refugees.But their case was in fact dealt with on its own merits and not under the rules for resettling Ukrainians.
The father, known only as "BEL", and his two young adult children had been fired at by Israeli forces at an aid distribution point.Their link to the UK is through the father's brother, referred to in court as "BSJ". He legally settled in the UK after Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2007 and became a British citizen.The court heard that Hamas had so discriminated against the family, who had worked for its political opponents, that it had killed a relative.After the October 2023 war began, BSJ began asking if his brother and his family could come to the UK.The Home Office granted the family permission to come to the UK in January this year, telling them they must first pass biometric checks at the British consulate in Jordan.However, the Foreign Office has refused to ask Israel to let the family leave Gaza because it only does so in exceptional cases involving couples or a parent and child separated by the war.Ruling against the government, Mr Justice Chamberlain said while the law did not require the government to assist the family to reach the UK, the foreign secretary should look again, considering the legally exceptional nature of the situation.Liz Barratt, the family's lawyer, said: "We hope that the Foreign Office will consider the judgment carefully and act quickly to reconsider their approach to this case and the policy more widely so that our clients and others in a similar position can be assisted to leave Gaza."
Back in February, the family's case became a political row when Badenoch said during PMQs that it had been "completely wrong" for a judge to grant Palestinians the right to live in the UK after they originally applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainians.Starmer fired back that the government would close the loophole. "It should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration," he said at the time. But the publicly-available appeal judgment shows the family were not given permission to arrive under the scheme for Ukrainian refugees.While they had initially used that immigration form, in error, they won their case under general human rights considerations which allow families from all backgrounds to make an exceptional request for help.The Lady Chief Justice, Dame Sue Carr, later said the way both leaders had presented the case in Parliament had been "unacceptable", given their duty to respect the role of judges in upholding the law.