More than 85 British MPs have written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood expressing concern over reports that the government is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza. Labour MP Kim Johnson sent the letter on Thursday, signed by MPs from across different parties.
Last September, the Home Office suspended refugee family reunion applications pending the introduction of new, stricter rules. Those rules have not yet been announced. As a result, families in Gaza who had applied to join an immediate family member in Britain before the suspension have been blocked from doing so.
The Political Standoff
Johnson said family reunification should never be treated as a political bargaining chip. "For families enduring the horrors of Gaza, it is a lifeline — often the only hope of safety and the chance to hold their loved ones again," she added. She also said, "At a time of unimaginable loss and trauma, the very least we should be doing is ensuring those with a legal right to be together are not torn apart by needless Home Office obstruction. We cannot allow bureaucracy to stand in the way of humanity."
Johnson's letter was signed by dozens of Labour MPs, including Richard Burgon, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis, John McDonnell and Abtisam Mohamed. It was also signed by Green MPs Sian Berry, Carla Denyer and Hannah Spencer, members of the parliamentary Independent Alliance and some Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party MPs.
The letter said Palestinians in the UK had been told by the Foreign Office that they had agreed to evacuate their families from Gaza. It said lawyers reported that the Home Office appeared to be refusing to provide the required onward travel assurance and sometimes using legal challenges to block these families from coming to the UK, in a way that appeared to be taking a harsher line with Palestinian families than with refugees from other countries applying for family reunification visas.
The Medical Evacuation Gap
The letter further said the government's medical evacuation scheme, which commits to bringing 300 children "in need of life saving and life changing medical care" from Gaza to the UK, still remained unmet. It raised the cases of two children from Gaza, 12-year-old Mahmoud Mansi and 15-year-old Obaida Atwan, who were evacuated from Gaza and met former Prime Minister Keir Starmer last December, when he promised to do everything in his power to reunite them with their remaining family back in Gaza. The letter said they had heard nothing further in the months since.
The MPs asked Mahmood to urgently reinstate the family reunification process for Palestinians and work with counterparts in the Foreign Office to evacuate everyone who had been granted permission to come to the UK. They also asked that the Home Office ensure its policy on Palestinians from Gaza was in line with refugees from other countries applying for family reunification visas.
The Broader Policy Context
Andy Burnham apologized for the Starmer government's response to Israel's genocide in Gaza shortly before he became prime minister last month. Burnham said, "I know many people feel that at the start of Israel's military action in Gaza, my party didn't get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better." He called the "unbearable suffering" in Gaza a "scar on our collective conscience." He also criticized Israel's ever-expanding occupation of territory in Gaza, saying, "We've got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government."
Britain operated hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza during Israel's genocide and shared intelligence with Israel, which the government insisted was for "hostage rescue" purposes. The Starmer government imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel in 2024 and recognized Palestinian statehood last September.
Why This Matters:
The Home Office's suspension of family reunion applications reveals the complexity of balancing immigration policy with humanitarian obligations. The delay in announcing new rules has left families in limbo for nearly a year, raising questions about whether bureaucratic processes are being applied consistently across different refugee populations. The unfulfilled medical evacuation commitment — which promised to bring 300 children needing life-saving care to the UK — suggests a gap between political promises and operational delivery. The cases of Mahmoud Mansi and Obaida Atwan, who met the former Prime Minister last year and received assurances about family reunification, highlight the human cost of policy paralysis. Britain's partial arms embargo on Israel and recognition of Palestinian statehood indicate a shifting diplomatic stance, yet the suspension of family reunification applications suggests internal policy contradictions that leave vulnerable families caught between competing government priorities.