Critically injured Palestinian children who were to be urgently brought to the UK for treatment are still waiting to board a plane more than six weeks after the evacuation was announced, The i Paper can reveal.
The delay appears to have been caused by the Government's insistence that the children's relatives must travel with a biometric visa, which stores information such as facial recognition and fingerprints. The Home Office says biometric visas 'play a significant role in securing our borders', but obtaining them is a process that can take weeks to complete. In contrast, the requirement was waived for Ukrainian refugees in 2022.
Some of the children needing life-saving care have been rerouted to receive treatment in Italy due to 'UK delays', according to a humanitarian organisation. The i Paper understands there are 50 children waiting to come to the UK for urgent hospital care under Sir Keir Starmer's scheme, with NHS facilities across the country ready for their arrival.
Labour MPs have criticised the hold-up, warning that the children's health could further deteriorate. Dr Simon Opher, MP for Stroud, said the fact that children are still waiting is 'unacceptable' and that the visas should be 'scrapped without delay'. Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham-East, echoed calls for biometric requirements to be waived immediately. Kim Johnson, MP for Liverpool Riverside, called the visa requirements 'an unacceptable and unnecessary barrier', adding: 'If we could do it for Ukrainians, we can do it for Gazan children – what is lacking is the political will.'
More than 18,000 children have been killed since Israeli strikes on Gaza began in October 2023, an average of 28 every day, according to Unicef. Most hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning and medical supplies are critically low, with the number of injured children estimated to be over 33,000. The evacuation of up to 50 Palestinian children was announced by the Prime Minister in July, who described the situation as 'a humanitarian catastrophe'.
Project Pure Hope (PPH), a humanitarian organisation that has been advising the Government, says that a three-year-old boy with 40 per cent burns and a one-year-old needing life-saving surgery had to be rerouted to Italy due to the delays. The Department of Health, which is leading the evacuation plans, repeated a statement saying: 'We expect the children and their immediate family members to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks.'
