Urge the UK Home Secretary to Grant Student Visa and Defer Biometrics for Palestinian Students and Families n Gaza
24 July 2025
We are urgently calling on the Home Secretary to automatically defer biometric visa requirements for Palestinian medics with university offers in the UK and issue decisions before September 2025, when their courses begin. The same deferral must be granted to the dependents of Palestinians already in the UK, just as was done for Ukrainian refugees, who were allowed to submit their biometrics after arrival. We demand that the UK immediately lift this barrier and issue swift decisions for Palestinians trying to leave Gaza, as other European countries have already done.
UK Must Grant Visas and Defer Biometrics for Palestinian Students and Families Under Siege
Positive Action in Housing is urgently calling on the Home Secretary to defer biometric visa requirements for Palestinian medics with university offers in the UK and issue decisions before September 2025, when their courses begin.
The same deferral must apply to the dependents of Palestinians already in the UK, just as it did for Ukrainian refugees, who were permitted to submit biometrics after arrival.
Currently, all are blocked by an impossible demand: to complete biometric enrolment in a place where biometric centres no longer exist and safe passage is impossible.
The biometric centre in Gaza was destroyed in 2023, and leaving the territory under siege is near-impossible.
Family members entitled to reunite with loved ones are being denied that right. Biometrics have become a death sentence—people are asked to submit documents they cannot complete, for checks they cannot access, in a war zone they cannot leave.
The Home Secretary could waive the requirement. Why the barriers? In 2022, the UK waived biometrics for Ukrainian passport holders under the Ukraine Family Scheme, allowing online applications and biometrics after arrival.
The precedent is there! Palestinian students with scholarships to leading UK universities are now facing the same crisis—some have already died waiting. The Home Office claims waivers exist in “exceptional circumstances”, but these are applied narrowly and punitively. Family reunion applicants must even prove they are full-time carers. These stipulations are putting lives in danger and causing unnecessary delays.
Other countries—France, Germany, Ireland, and Belgium—have already helped their students escape. The UK must do the same.
How can you help?
Write to your MP and demand that the Home Secretary Act Now And Defer Biometrics For Palestinians as they did for Ukrainians
Take Action Now
Email your MP today and demand urgent intervention from the UK Home Secretary and Prime Minister. The system is failing: it takes weeks to apply for a biometric waiver, and so far, none of the Palestinians who have applied for visas and deferrals have received decisions.
The biometric requirement is a death sentence for those trapped in Gaza. The UK government must lift the requirement to apply for deferrals and issue immediate decisions so that Palestinians with confirmed places at UK universities can leave Gaza and begin their studies.
The government must also coordinate with humanitarian agencies and Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage for those granted UK visas. Other countries—Belgium, France, Ireland, and Germany—have already evacuated their Palestinian students. The UK has yet to grant a single deferral. Lives are at risk.
Use the template letter below and make sure to amend it—even slightly—as www.WriteToThem.com will not send identical messages to MPs. It only takes a few minutes, and every message matters.
(Guidance: Amend this template letter and then send it via www.WriteToThem.com. Please also copy your message to us, and forward the response you receive from your MP so we can track pressure across constituencies.)
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Subject: Urgent Action Required – Biometric Deferrals for Palestinians in Gaza Seeking family reunion
Dear [MP’s Name],
I am writing to you as my MP to urge you to press the Home Secretary to immediately grant biometric waivers or deferrals for Palestinians trapped in Gaza who are applying for UK family reunion or student visas.
At present, every UK visa route requires applicants to provide biometrics at a Visa Application Centre abroad. For Palestinians in Gaza this is impossible: the borders are sealed, Rafah crossing is destroyed, and there is no functioning Visa Application Centre.
Although in theory it is possible to apply for a biometric waiver or deferral, the family reunion application process does not make this clear or simple. Desperate families are likely to submit applications without specifically requesting a waiver — and then face refusal on biometric grounds. This amounts to setting applicants up to fail.
The Home Office’s own responses show this contradiction clearly:
• June 2025: In a letter to an MP, the Home Office claimed Palestinians must “use existing routes” and said it was “keeping all visa pathways under review.” This is the political line.
• 18 August 2025: In a reply to a Palestinian applicant, UKVI admitted it “can’t process a visa application without biometric information” and advised applying “from another country if lawfully present there.” This is the bureaucratic reality.
Both responses amount to the same thing: the imposition of an impossible condition. There is no lawful way out of Gaza, no functioning Visa Application Centre, and no possibility of following this advice. The Home Office is knowingly giving guidance that cannot be acted upon, while using it as grounds to block family reunion.
The disparity with Ukraine is stark:
• 218,600 Ukrainians entered the UK after biometrics were waived or deferred and new routes opened in 2022 (source: UK Government).
• Since October 2023, only 38 Palestinians have been admitted to the UK (source: Parliamentary Written Answer, Jan 2025).
• To date, there has not been a single case of a biometric waiver or deferral granted to Palestinians, except for nine Chevening scholars — an arbitrary exception that excludes the vast majority of students and families.
This is not a policy gap, it is a bureaucratic blockade. Palestinians are being refused visas not because they fail eligibility tests, but because the government is insisting on an impossible condition. Family reunion applications are being withdrawn or refused, not on merit, but because biometrics cannot physically be provided.
I am therefore asking you to:
1. Press the Home Secretary to grant immediate biometric waivers or deferrals for Palestinians in Gaza applying for family reunion or student visas.
2. Raise this matter in Parliament so that the injustice of “biometric refusals” is placed firmly on record.
3. Challenge the double standards between Ukrainians, for whom every barrier was lifted, and Palestinians, for whom every door is closed.
Time is not neutral. Every week of delay is another week in which families in Gaza are starved, bombed, and killed — while their applications sit blocked by bureaucracy in London.
I look forward to your reply and to seeing you raise this matter with the Home Secretary.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Address + Postcode]
[Optional: Email / Phone]