Help This Palestinian Medic Leave Gaza To Begin His Glasgow University Course
Dr Majed is a Palestinian medical doctor trapped in Gaza. He has been volunteering in bombed, overcrowded hospitals throughout Israel’s ongoing assault, treating patients under siege while continuing to study, research, and teach. Against all the odds, he has been awarded a place to study immunology at the University of Glasgow this September. But the UK government is blocking his route to safety. Please view and share his video.
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“My name is Dr Majed, a medical doctor from Gaza, a place where mere survival is often the only goal, and the pursuit of education becomes an act of defiance and hope. For the past 21 months, I have volunteered on the front lines, treating patients in overwhelmed, overcrowded hospitals while facing unimaginable personal and professional challenges.
Against all the odds, I was accepted into the MSc Programme in Immunology and Inflammatory Disease at the University of Glasgow. My commitment to this field is deeply personal. I became a physician determined to save others under impossible conditions and to build a future where Gaza’s children no longer suffer needlessly.
But that future is now at risk.
The UK requires biometrics to process student visas. However, the only UK-authorised centre in Gaza has been closed since October 2023, and the border crossings have remained sealed since May 2024. While the Home Office introduced a biometric deferral mechanism for emergencies, requests from Gaza-based students have been met with silence or significant delays. Even when approved, we have no safe or permitted route to reach a third country to provide biometrics.
Nearly 30 students have submitted deferral requests, none of which have been processed with the urgency this crisis demands. And this is the grim reality for me and more than 40 other Palestinian scholars who risk losing fully funded places at UK universities beginning in September 2025.
If the UK does not act now, these opportunities—our lifelines—will be lost.
Other governments—Ireland, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany—have moved to evacuate their students. The UK, despite offering many of us prestigious scholarships, has yet to take concrete action.
I am calling on the people of Scotland and the UK to help. Please call and email your MPs and urge the Home Office to act immediately. We need a safe route out of Gaza before time runs out.”
Like other Palestinian students, I have a place at a UK university. But unlike other European governments, the UK has still not acted to let us leave an active war zone where starvation is taking hold and our lives are in danger. Unless the Home Secretary grants a visa and defers biometrics, I am trapped in Gaza. If this decision doesn’t come soon, I may die before I ever reach the University of Glasgow. This was my last hope—my dream.