A Palestinian family of six who are trapped in Gaza despite having permission to join a relative in the UK have gone to court to try to force British authorities to help them leave.
Their case caused political controversy in February when the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said an immigration tribunal judge was wrong to grant them the right to live in the UK after they applied through a scheme originally meant for Ukrainian refugees.
After their application to come to Britain was granted on appeal, the Home Office confirmed it would allow them entry if they attended a visa application centre and submitted their biometric data. In order to do this, the family need consular support to leave Gaza.
However, that support had been refused by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in “unlawful” circumstances, lawyers for the family told the high court on Wednesday.
The family, who have been granted anonymity, are a father, mother and four children. A brother of one parent is a British citizen in the UK.
Their request for consular assistance was a “modest one” and would be “perfectly acceptable” to Israel, said Tim Owen KC, representing the family.
The FCDO’s legal team said that facilitating departures from Gaza was “a highly complex exercise that expends political capital”. Taking a broader approach to those seeking consular help risked difficulties with Israel and could affect efforts to help others qualifying for support, they argued.
The judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Chamberlain, said it was a fact that the background of the case involved the generation of “a certain amount of political controversy”.
England and Wales’s most senior judge wrote to Starmer earlier this year about what she described as an “unacceptable” parliamentary exchange with the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, saying she was “deeply troubled” by the discussion of the case.
Details of the family’s circumstances in Gaza – where they were said to be “at immediate risk of death or serious injury” – were laid out in legal submissions on Wednesday. They departed their home on 23 October after a “10-minute warning” by the Israeli military. The apartment block was then bombed.
The family had regularly relocated, and three members were said to have been fired at while approaching an aid distribution site. Shrapnel from a tank shell had lodged in the wrist of one, who was unable to obtain appropriate medical treatment.
Owen told the court that Israel had set up “a mechanism for consular requests to be made by third states for the departure of individuals”, but David Lammy, Britain’s foreign secretary, “won’t even make the request”.
“It is a request that is anticipated and on the face of it is perfectly acceptable to Israel,” he said.
The FCDO argued in legal submissions that the family did not qualify for the consular assistance usually offered in a crisis. While there is discretion, the FCDO considered it “critical” this support was offered only in exceptional circumstances.
It had to negotiate a delicate balance in facilitating departures from Gaza including liaising with different elements of the Israeli government and other international actors, it said.
Providing support to leave Gaza was a “complex, risky and multifaceted enterprise,” according to submissions from Julian Milford KC, representing the foreign secretary.
In answer to a question from the judge, Milford said the UK government was aware of 10 individuals with unconditional leave to enter who were still in Gaza. A further 28 had conditional leave to enter the UK, subject to biometric checks. Aside from humanitarian workers, the most recent British national to leave Gaza had departed on Wednesday.
The case was adjourned after Chamberlain said he would deliver his decision in writing, while recognising that the claimant’s circumstances were “pressing”.