Refugee families abandoned as UK shuts down last safe route out of genocide
4 September 2025
Today, Positive Action in Housing will try to submit last-minute family reunion applications by 3 pm for up to 75 Palestinian families trying to reunite with their loved ones in Gaza.
The reason: it is the deadline set by the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper who has just shut down the last safe route for refugees in Britain to reunite with their families. After 3pm today, they must now meet the £29,000 income threshold of the standard family migration system.
Last year more than 20,000 family reunion visas were issued, 92 per cent to women and children.
For Palestinians who have lost everything and are watching their families endure bombing, starvation and repeated displacement in a live-streamed genocide, this decision is a death sentence. Family reunion was the last hope they had of rebuilding their families from erasure.
Contrast this with the treatment of Ukrainians since 2022: over 200,000 admitted without biometric checks, on expired passports, with immediate rights to join family. Meanwhile the Home Secretary proudly announced 9 Chevening scholars and 40 students from Gaza would be allowed in, a token gesture dressed up as grand gesture. Palestinians have faced a bureaucratic siege at every stage of family reunion, and student visa applications, and forced into delays over biometric waivers and deferrals. Never forget that the British government did this in the middle of a genocide.
Robina Qureshi, CEO of Positive Action in Housing, said:
“To cut dead the only lifeline open to refugees desperately trying to submit family reunion applications is unbelievably cruel. We have a 3 pm deadline and will help as many people as we can to apply for their family reunion.
“For Ukrainians, every barrier was lifted: biometrics were waived, new routes were opened, families were reunited at speed. We know this because we campaigned to allow Ukrainians in and to be sheltered in the UK. For Palestinians, every door is being systematically slammed shut. The double standards are truly sickening.
“Our hands are tied when it comes to Palestinians and we are forced to watch people being starved and bombed, when we know we have the resources and the goodwill to support Palestinians. These impossible conditions must be lifted now.”I
Our supporters across NGOs, civil society and donor communities are heartsick at this cruelty. Many are saying clearly that this country’s refusal to act is outright complicity in genocide. And more and more are coming out and saying it.