Step Up the Pressure: UK Must Grant Visas and Defer Biometrics for Palestinian Students and Families Under Siege
23 August 2025
Britain is enforcing a “biometric blockade” against Palestinians in Gaza. Families are still being told to “use existing routes” to the UK and apply for biometrics — routes that are sealed off by design. Every week wasted on paperwork is costing lives.
The UK must grant visas and defer biometrics for Palestinians under siege in Gaza.
Positive Action in Housing is supporting 75 Palestinians from Gaza seeking family reunion or student visas. Instead of protection, they face:
Confusion and delay: The visa rules are buried in a 59-page document that even lawyers struggle to navigate.
Withdrawn applications: Palestinians are being encouraged to withdraw family reunion requests because they cannot give biometrics.
Refusals on impossible grounds: Applications are being rejected for failure to submit biometrics — when there is no functioning visa centre in Gaza, and the borders are sealed.
Circular replies from MPs: Supporters who wrote to their MPs were told Palestinians must “use existing routes.” But those routes are inaccessible, creating endless delays.
This is not bureaucracy. It is a bureaucratic siege. Time is not neutral — every delay means people are starved, bombed, or killed while Britain looks away.
Our Demand
The UK must grant visas and defer biometrics for Palestinians under siege in Gaza.
We are calling on the Home Secretary to:
Grant immediate biometric waivers or deferrals for Palestinians seeking family reunion or student visas.
Provide a clear evacuation and visa programme for Palestinian students, as France, Belgium, Italy and Germany have already done.
For Ukrainians, every barrier was lifted. For Palestinians, every door is closed. The double standards could not be clearer.
How can you help?
Write to your MP: Demand that they press the Home Secretary to grant visas and defer biometrics for Palestinians in Gaza.
Use our template letter to send your message today.
Spread the word: Share this campaign on social media and use the terms biometric blockade and bureaucratic siege.
Mobilise your networks: Ask your NGO, union, faith group or professional body to endorse this campaign and join the call for urgent biometric waivers and student evacuations.
Every day of delay is another day of abandonment. The biometric blockade must be lifted now.
(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]