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The British government is facing legal action over its lack of action to help evacuate families in Gaza after committing to do so months ago.
Two families have argued that the government’s failure to act is unlawful and in breach of their family’s human rights. They are among a number of separated families to which the government has failed to keep its evacuation promise, according to the law firm Leigh Day, which is representing them.
“I wished that I didn’t have to do this, that it didn’t have to reach this level that I’d have to involve courts,” said one father in the UK, who asked to remain anonymous. “I wish anyone would intervene and take my children out of the life that they are living.”
The man, who had been granted humanitarian protection in the UK prior to the breakout of the war in 2023, said he was told by the Foreign Office in August that he would be reunited with his family after they received a positive family reunion decision a month earlier.
“It was really shocking to see that this didn’t actually end up happening,” said the father, who is from Gaza City, via a translator. The 39-year-old likened the government’s response to that of being released from prison, only to be told he would have to return.
“The war is not over,” he added. “There’s still aggression from Israel, there’s no food or water, people are not OK.”
In Gaza, the death toll continues to climb past 67,000, according to the health ministry. Israel has been accused of violating the ceasefire which came into effect in October, and of committing genocide by the United Nations.
In August, the government announced that it would evacuate ill and injured children from Gaza, but has been called on by Médecins Sans Frontièrs to scale up its efforts after assisting only a handful of children. In October the government announced that it would allow Palestinian students taking up scholarships at UK universities to bring their families with them from Gaza, on a case-by-case basis.
“My children are students as well,” the father said. “Why shouldn’t [they] be brought here?”
While the family has a successful family reunion decision, they are subject to biometric checks. With no visa application centre in Gaza, lawyers say the UK government has refused to provide assurances by the Jordanian authorities to allow the family to cross the border to complete biometric checks there.
The Foreign Office, which was approached for comment, was understood to have responded to a pre-action letter sent in October indicating that the family could not be assisted at present and that the differential treatment between the family and students and medical evacuees was not unlawful.
A government spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
Earlier this year, figures revealed how Home Office bureaucracy was making it impossible for people stranded in war zones, such as Gaza and Sudan, to reunite with family members in the UK. For months, campaigners and parliamentarians have been calling for the creation of a bespoke scheme, similar to that created after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In Gaza City, the man’s wife, three children and adopted nephew in al-Zawida, Gaza, are now living in a tent. His wife walks an hour to be able to call him and he worries for his children, who, he said, have been shot at by Israeli forces trying to get aid and have had flour and rice taken from them by gangs.
Sarah Crowe, a solicitor for Leigh Day, said the government had turned its back on their commitments to ensure their clients’ safe passage despite promising to assist them over two months ago.
“Meanwhile, other groups have been safely evacuated under similar circumstances. Our clients argue that this differential treatment is not only unjustifiable and unfair – it is unlawful,” said Crowe.
Another father in the UK, who asked to remain anonymous, has taken separate legal action in an effort to reunite with his six children in Gaza. Earlier this year the government agreed to assist the family after a pre-action letter, however thefamily say the government has gone back on its word.
Speaking through a translator, he said family members in Gazaare living in a tent after their house was bombed by Israel, and that they are entirely reliant on charities for food. In Gaza, his daughter has developed blood clots in her legs and his son struggles to breathe after inhaling phosphorus gas, he said. In the UK, his two daughters often ask when the others will join them. He said he is tired, drained and will often start crying and shouting uncontrollably.
“My children were supposed to be here in May,” said the father, who fled Gaza in 2018 after he was imprisoned and tortured by Hamas. “I was supposed to have already been with them for five or six months now.”
