Court gives Gazans right to settle in UK

London: Palestinian migrants have been granted the right to live in the UK after applying through a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees.

A family of six seeking to flee Gaza have been allowed to join their brother in Britain after an immigration judge ruled that the Home Office’s rejection of their application breached their human rights.

The family had made their application through the Ukraine Family Scheme and the decision to accept their case came despite warnings by lawyers for the Home Office that it could open the floodgates to “the admission of all those in conflict zones with family in the UK”.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the case showed changes to human rights laws were needed so that Parliament, not judges, controlled who could settle in the UK.

It is the latest in a series of controversial decisions by immigration tribunals, revealed by The Telegraph, which include the case of an Albanian criminal whose deportation was halted partly because of his young son’s aversion to foreign chicken nuggets.

The Palestinian family – a mother, father and four children aged seven to 18 – had seen their home destroyed by an air strike and were living in a Gaza refugee camp with daily threats to their lives from Israeli military attacks.

They applied using the Ukraine scheme’s form in January last year on the basis that it best fitted their circumstances and that their situation was so “compelling and compassionate” that their application should be granted outside its rules.

The Ukraine Family Scheme, set up in March 2022, allowed Ukrainian nationals and their family members to come to the UK if they had a relative who was a British citizen or settled in the UK. Some 72,000 visas were issued before it closed last February.

The family’s claim was initially refused by a lower-tier immigration tribunal on the basis that it was outside the Ukraine programme’s rules, and that it was for Parliament to decide which countries should benefit from resettlement schemes.

However, Hugo Norton-Taylor, an upper tribunal judge, overturned that decision and granted the Palestinians’ appeal, allowing them to come to the UK on the basis of their Article 8 right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

He said the rights of the individual family who were in an “extreme and life threatening” situation outweighed the “public interest” of the rules on entry to the UK, which were designed to limit resettlement schemes and control immigration.

The Home Office said that, despite the ruling, there was no resettlement scheme for people from Gaza and that it would contest similar claims in the future

The case, revealed in court documents, sparked criticism on Tuesday. Mr Philp said it was an “alarming and dangerous” judgment, which created “a basis for anyone in any conflict zone anywhere in the world with relations in the UK to come here”.

“There are two million people in Gaza alone and tens of millions around the world in conflict zones, many of whom will have relations living in the UK. We obviously cannot accommodate all of them,” he said.

“The UK has generously helped people in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong with specific humanitarian schemes. We cannot have judges simply making up new schemes based on novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law.

“It is clearer than ever that radical changes to human rights laws are needed – so Parliament, and not judges, make decisions about eligibility to come to the UK. Now there is a ceasefire in Gaza, I hope that the Government appeals this decision based on the new facts on the ground.”