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17 hours ago
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A Palestinian academic has failed in his latest attempt to be reunited with his family in the UK after the Home Office concluded their case was not urgent and it was more appropriate for his two children to remain with their mother in a tent in Gaza.
Bassem Abudagga was also told in a letter from Home Office officials that no reason had been found that was “sufficiently compelling” to defer a requirement that his wife attend a visa application centre (VAC) in Gaza so she could provide fingerprints to satisfy the conditions for evacuation.
No such facility remains in Gaza as a result of Israeli bombardments, which have continued despite the fragile ceasefire – a fact that Abudagga says the Home Office is well aware of.
Abudagga last saw his wife, Marim, son Karim, six, and daughter Talya, 10, four weeks before the October 7 attack in 2023 when he returned for a visit to Gaza.
He had won a scholarship to study for a PhD at York St John University in 2022 and is regarded by his tutors as a model student.
The family home has been destroyed and his family are now living in a camp near the sea.
Abudagga told the Guardian that when he read the Home Office’s latest judgment, “I felt my final hope of being reunited with my wife and children after more than three years had been lost. It was very, very hard.”
His wife’s response on hearing the news was desperate. “She kept saying to me when I called: ‘It seems we will never meet again. Don’t make any more efforts to bring us to the UK because it seems the UK will never get us there. Just keep concentrating on your studies,’” he said.
The Home Office letter also said consideration had been given as to whether his wife and children’s circumstances “outweigh the interests of national and border security” and – by rejecting his request – implied they did not.
Abudagga said: “When I read that they link bringing my family to the UK with UK security, and suggest the children are better off in Gaza, I simply could not believe in British values and norms any more. I expected the British government cared about family life, about human rights.”
In his latest request for the government to help, Abudagga asked the Home Office specifically to give a decision in principle on his family’s visa applications before his wife had attended a VAC.
Crucially, had he succeeded in this request, he could then have approached the Foreign Office for help with evacuating them to a country where Marim could have attended a VAC. But the request was turned down.
The Home Office’s UK decision-making team stated that it was “not satisfied that their circumstances are sufficiently compelling for [us] to be able to deviate from our normal policy that requires your clients to attend a VAC prior to consideration of their applications”.
It also stated that because Abudagga had said he would want eventually to return to Gaza if and when he had a home for his family there, his stay in the UK was therefore considered temporary. “Consequently it is appropriate for your minor clients to remain with their primary carer, their mother, until circumstances change,” it said.
In language that has appalled supporters of Abudagga’s case, the Home Office said in its response to his lawyers that it accepted “that circumstances in Gaza are difficult and that due to displacement it may be more difficult to access certain necessities. It is also acknowledged that you have informed us that your clients are displaced from their home due to evacuation orders.”.
However, it was “not satisfied” that there was sufficient evidence to show their case was urgent or that the family reunion could not be delayed “until it is safe to visit a VAC”.
Legal sources dealing in such cases say there has been a noticeable toughening of Home Office responses over recent months as the government attempts to clamp down on immigration and asylum in response to the rise of Reform UK. Many cases involve Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
Abudagga says his wife and children are living in terrible conditions, short of food, suffering from the winter cold and under constant fear of bombardment despite the fragile ceasefire. The Guardian has previously reported on the trauma suffered by Talya, Karim and their mother as a result of Israeli bombardments, moving homes and constant hunger.
Marim is now mourning her father, who died two weeks ago. “My wife is trying to do the daily duties of bringing food, securing the tent from the weather – it is very cold, very windy, very rainy – when her father passed away two weeks ago. The details are very, very hard,” Abudagga said.
In a similar case recently highlighted by the Guardian, another PhD student was evacuated with her family to the UK, having been allowed to do her biometrics in Jordan. This raised Abudagga’s hope that his case would be looked on favourably. “This lady was allowed to get her fingerprints done in Jordan and the Home Office later allowed her family to join. The case is the same as mine,” Abudagga said.
The Home Office was approached for comment and was asked whether it realised that it was impossible for Marim to reach a VAC in Gaza because there was not one.
Abudagga’s local MP, Rebecca Long-Bailey, has written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to ask the Home Office to reconsider his case but it has stuck by its decision.
Abudagga has now instructed the human rights firm Leigh Day to represent him in challenging the Home Office’s refusal.
Sarah Crowe, a human rights lawyer at Leigh Day, said: “We will be writing to the Home Office to set out why their decision-making in this case is plainly unlawful. In line with the Home Office’s own policy, Bassem’s family should have their applications predetermined, which is an important step in reuniting the family.”
