Bassem Abudagga, a PhD student in Salford, says his wife and two children remain trapped in Gaza after two years of legal battles with the Home Office. His wife Mariam and their children, aged seven and 11, are living in a rat-infested camp with other displaced people, sharing clothes, food and a toilet.
"We just talk about needs," he told the Manchester Evening News. "Have you managed to get water? Have you managed to get food? My wife is trying to repair a toilet, they need to fix things here and there." His parents, in their 70s, struggle to access money because they rely on electronic wallets with poor mobile phones.
Legal battle over biometrics and travel assurances
Bassem left Gaza less than two weeks before October 7, 2023, to work on a doctorate focused on rebuilding Gaza. Legal experts say his family qualifies for evacuation under the Home Office Gaza Process, but the Home Office has refused to grant visas in principle, leading to multiple court challenges.
In September 2025, the Home Office refused the visas, but after a judicial review threat, it agreed to grant them in principle. In March 2026, Mariam and the children received provisional entry clearance as student dependants. However, they must submit biometrics at a Visa Application Centre, none of which exist in Gaza due to the conflict.
The Home Office refused to defer the biometrics requirement. In June, the Foreign Office agreed to provide evacuation assistance and asked the Home Office to consider Onward Travel Assurances (OTA) to allow travel through Jordan, but a decision has been pushed to December 19. Lawyers have threatened further High Court action over the biometrics refusal, which the Home Office withdrew but said it cannot reconsider until the end of September.
Family counts losses and loses hope
Bassem said his extended family has stopped counting the dead at 300. "My parents. My wife, my children have lived through a famine, they lived through a genocide," he said. "How can I put hope in this government?"
He also criticised Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who before becoming PM apologised for Labour's initial response to Israel's military operation in Gaza and said the party must do more to pressure the Israeli government. "They just use Gaza as a political tool," Bassem said. "We feel like we're trapped."
Home Office and legal responses
The Home Office said it does not "routinely comment on individual cases." It added that "biometrics, including fingerprints and facial images, are a core part of the UK's immigration system" and pointed to resources on the Gaza Process, stating: "We have always been clear that this is a complex situation." The FCDO said it "continues to stand ready to try and support those eligible to leave should the situation change."
Sarah Crowe, a lawyer at Leigh Day representing Bassem, said: "Bassem's family meet the Immigration Rules to join him as student dependants and if they were in any other country, they would have made their own way to a Visa Application Centre, provided their biometrics and joined Bassem in the UK by now, since they have visas in principle." She added that the Home Office has made special biometric arrangements for Gaza scholarship students but has refused to exercise discretion in this case.
Rebecca Long-Bailey MP said: "My constituent Bassem has been fighting to be reunited with his wife and two children, who have been stuck in administrative limbo for years while witnessing deeply traumatic events, living in tents and being displaced multiple times after their family home in Gaza was completely destroyed." She urged the Home Office to consider granting Onward Travel Assurance before biometrics, as it has done in similar cases.
