LONDON: The UK Home Office has told a Palestinian academic studying in Britain that his wife and children would not be brought to the UK from Gaza as their case is not “sufficiently compelling” for evacuation.
In a letter, the department told Bassem Abudagga his family would need to attend a visa application center in Gaza to provide biometric data before traveling, despite there being no such facility in the enclave.
Abudagga, studying on a scholarship for a doctorate at York St John University, has not seen his family since September 2023, three weeks before the Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked a regional war. His wife Marim, son Karim, aged 6, and daughter Talya, 10, are living in a tent after their house was destroyed.
On receiving the Home Office letter, Abudagga told The Guardian: “I felt my final hope of being reunited with my wife and children after more than three years had been lost. It was very, very hard.”
He added that his wife “kept saying to me when I called, ‘It seems we will never meet again. Don’t make any more efforts to bring us to the UK because it seems the UK will never get us there. Just keep concentrating on your studies.’”
