Dozens of MPs have told the prime minister it is “more urgent than ever” to create a Ukraine-style family visa for Gazans with family in the UK.
At the end of June, 67 MPs and peers wrote to Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, who was home secretary at the time, to create a “Gaza Family Scheme” to “reunite [Palestinians] with their loved ones in the UK until it is safe to return”.
They said it could be based on the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allowed Ukrainian nationals from 2022 to February 2024 to join family members in the UK to live, work and study for up to three years.
However, the group told Sky News they have not received a reply in the three months since their request, so Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, who coordinated the letter, has sent another letter to the prime minister and current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, calling for an urgent update on whether the government will create a Gaza family visa scheme.
The new letter, seen exclusively by Sky News and sent on 1 October, said a scheme “is more urgent than ever” to “help the family members of British citizens and residents currently trapped in Gaza”.
Labour’s Marsha de Cordova organised the letter calling for a Ukraine-style family visa. Pic: Parliament
It says 65,419 people are now reported to have been killed and 167,160 injured, while critical infrastructure has been destroyed and medics, rescue workers, teachers and journalists have been killed.
“British citizens and residents with family members in Gaza are understandably terrified that their relatives will be killed,” the letter says.
Israel has been engaging in a military takeover of Gaza City, and on Wednesday its defence minister, Israel Katz, said anyone who remains in the city will be “considered terrorists and terror supporters”.
On 1 September, the British government temporarily suspended new applications for a scheme allowing refugees to bring family members to the UK, which includes people from Gaza.
Marsha de Cordova’s letter to the PM and home secretary
Ms de Cordova, a former shadow cabinet member, told Sky News: “We are now facing a genocide in Gaza – as concluded by the UN – with an ever-rising death toll, an unyielding manmade famine and family members of British citizens trapped in a war zone.
“That’s why I’ve written again to the government, pressing them to create a Gaza family visa scheme.
“A family visa scheme would give people a route out of Gaza, allow them to be reunited with family in the UK and give them the chance at a fresh start.
“Just last month, the government took the important measure of recognising Palestinian statehood. A family visa scheme would be a practical next step that would help bring people to safety and help us – as a nation – live up to our highest values on the global stage.”
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UK recognises Palestinian state – what’s next?
Ghassan Ghaben, spokesman for the Gaza Families Reunited campaign, said the lack of a scheme “continues to tear Palestinian families apart”.
He said the suspension of the refugee family reunion route is a “devastating step backwards” as it was “one of the only safe routes left for spouses and children to join their immediate family members in the UK”.
Ghassan Ghaben said the lack of a scheme is tearing families apart. Pic: PA
“The UK government must uphold the right to family unity and allow Palestinians in the UK to reunite with their loved ones in Gaza,” Mr Ghaben said.
“More widely, it must urgently take concrete action to stop Israel’s continued starvation, displacement, and killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
“Recognising a Palestinian state without taking concrete steps to uphold Palestinian basic human rights, including family unity, is nothing short of hypocrisy.”
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The current wave of violence began on 7 October, 2023, when Hamas-led militants carried out an attack inside Israel that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
Israel claims its operation in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to surrender and return the remaining 48 hostages – it believes around 20 of the captives are still alive.
Israel has repeatedly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and claims they are justified as a means of self-defence. It says it does not target civilians.
The number of people killed in Gaza, reported by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, does not differentiate between civilians and fighters – but its officials say more than half of those killed are women and children.
Sky News has contacted Number 10 and the Home Office for a comment.
