A family of 18 from Gaza have been granted the right to live in the UK after winning a human rights appeal against the Home Office. The ruling has sparked fury from opposition politicians, who warn it could open the floodgates to thousands of Palestinian asylum seekers and impose a huge burden on taxpayers.
Landmark ruling on human rights grounds
The family includes a Gaza-born mother-of-three who was previously granted asylum. She had applied to bring her extended family to the UK, but Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood rejected the application. The mother won an appeal on human rights grounds, with an immigration tribunal ruling that refusing the family entry would breach her right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The tribunal granted the whole family anonymity. In addition to the woman's three children, both of her parents will move to Britain, as will a brother and his wife and four children; a sister and her four children; and another sister, her husband and three children. The ruling showed most of the adult applicants could not speak English and that their UK-based sister would be able to accommodate her parents. The UK-based woman and her three children had suffered mental health problems caused by their family's dire situation in Gaza.
Political backlash and floodgates warning
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, warned that the landmark ruling risked opening the floodgates to thousands of Palestinians claiming asylum in the UK. Philp said the Home Secretary must urgently appeal this shameful decision, and said it was yet more evidence that shows why the Immigration Tribunal must be abolished. He also called for the UK to leave the ECHR.
Reform MP Richard Tice claimed the family's move would require huge taxpayer subsidies. The lower tribunal judge concluded the family would require access to public funds.
Background of the case
The case dates back to November 2023, when the reunification application was submitted. This was rejected, but the family won a human rights appeal in the lower immigration court in April last year. Following this, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made an appeal to the upper immigration tribunal, which was lost this week. Upper Tribunal Judge Gemma Loughran said that denying the family permission to come to the UK breached Labour's obligations under the Human Rights Act.
“The judge concluded that the applicants’ refusal of entry clearance would give rise to consequences of such gravity for the sponsor and her children as to be unjustifiably harsh, such that the public interest was outweighed,” she said.
Context of UK immigration policy
Under normal circumstances, UK immigration law only allows reunification when there are close family ties. This requirement was also waived for some Ukrainian refugees as their circumstances were considered extremely dangerous. Labour suspended the family reunion scheme in September after figures showed the number of refugees’ family members granted UK visas had jumped from 4,300 in 2023 to 20,600 in the year to March.
As of last September, 50,000 children were believed to have been killed or injured by Israel, as reported by UN aid organisation Unicef.
