A family of 18 from Gaza has won the legal right to come to the UK as refugees under human rights legislation, despite the Home Office refusing their application.
A Gaza-born mother-of-three, who was previously granted asylum, was refused permission to bring her extended family with her to Britain, but appealed the decision in the courts on human rights grounds.
An immigration tribunal has now overturned the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood’s, decision and ruled that the woman can bring her relatives, arguing that refusing entry would breach her right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The landmark ruling, first reported by the Daily Mail, means that the woman and her children can be joined by both of her parents; a brother, his wife and four children; a sister and four children; and another sister, her husband and three children in Britain, and will have access to public funds.
The whole family was granted anonymity by the tribunal.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, warned that the ruling risked “opening the floodgates to thousands of Palestinians claiming asylum in the UK”.
Philp told the JC that the home secretary “must urgently appeal this shameful decision to a higher court”.
"Why should immigrants - from Gaza or anywhere else - be allowed to bring their entire extended family to the UK?” he added.
"We cannot have open borders with huge numbers of migrants exploiting human rights laws to come here and stay here.
"This is yet more evidence that shows why the Immigration Tribunal must be abolished and why we must leave the ECHR.”
The family was initially refused permission for reunification, which they applied for in late November 2023, but won a human rights appeal in the lower immigration court in April last year.
That led to an appeal by Mahmood in the upper immigration tribunal, which was lost by the government this week.
Upper Tribunal Judge Gemma Loughran said denying the family permission to come to the UK breached Labour's Human Rights Act.
The Palestinians argued they had a “right to family life” under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and won their case under Section 6 of the Act, which sets out how it is “unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right”.
The ruling showed most of the adult applicants could not speak English and that their UK-based sister would only be able to accommodate her parents.
The lower tribunal judge “concluded that the applicants would require access to public funds”, the ruling added.
The UK-based woman and her three children had suffered “mental health problems” caused by their family’s situation in Gaza, it said.
Judge Loughran said of the lower court’s decision: “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.
“Accordingly, the judge found that the decisions made in respect of the applicants were disproportionate and unlawful under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and allowed their appeals.”
“I do not find the [home secretary’s] grounds to be made out, and I conclude that the judge’s decision should stand. I accordingly uphold the judge’s decision,” the judge said.
It follows a similar ruling last year, in which an immigration tribunal granted a family from Gaza refugee status in the UK under a scheme intended for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.
Under normal circumstances, UK immigration law only allows reunification to happen when there are "close family ties", but this requirement was waived for certain 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.
The government is expected to launch a new scheme requiring refugees to follow similar rules as other Britons, requiring a minimum income, English language tests, and visa fees before bringing other family members to the UK.
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