THE Foreign Office must reconsider the decision not to support a Palestinian family’s attempts to leave Gaza after they were told they could join a family member in the UK, a High Court judge has ruled.
The family of six, which includes two children under the age of 10, were granted entry clearance to the UK in January this year, subject to them attending a visa application centre and providing biometric information.
They need consular support to leave Gaza, which the Foreign Office refused on several occasions, most recently on June 6.
Barristers for the family told the High Court in London earlier this month that the decision not to provide support was unlawful and that the Foreign Office should be ordered to take “all reasonable steps” to help them leave Gaza.
The department defended the claim, with its lawyers telling the court that the decision was “rational”.
In a ruling on Monday, Justice Chamberlain said that the decision would have to be sent back to the Foreign Office for reconsideration.
He said: “The challenged decision of 6 June 2025 is flawed and cannot stand. It will have to be reconsidered.
“This does not mean that the Foreign Secretary is obliged to decide in the claimants’ favour, just that he must think again.”
In his 29-page ruling, the judge said that the family’s apartment block was destroyed in October 2023 after they were given a 10 minute warning from the Israeli military, and they now live in a tent.
Chamberlain continued that they have “very little food and no effective sanitation” and remain “at constant risk of injury or death”.
He said that three of the family members had been fired upon by Israeli forces close to an aid distribution site, and one had been hit by shrapnel from a tank shell – but had been unable to access proper medical treatment.
They applied to join a relative who lives in the UK in January last year, but the Home Office refused their bid in May 2024.
After appealing against the decision, they were granted permission to enter the UK in January this year.
Their case was then put under the spotlight in February when Keir Starmer said he wanted to close a “loophole” that allowed the family the right to remain in the UK, after they applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees.
The Prime Minister said the decision was wrong, while Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch raised the case at Prime Minister’s Questions and said it “cannot be allowed to stand”.
The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, later said she was “deeply troubled to learn of the exchanges” between Starmer and Badenoch.
Baroness Carr, the most senior judge in England and Wales, told reporters it was “for the Government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary”.
Justice Chamberlain said that the Home Office is due to appeal against the decision to allow the family to enter the UK in January 2026.
At the hearing earlier this month, Tim Owen KC, for the family, told the court the decision to refuse consular assistance was “reached by a process which was procedurally unfair” and “constitutes a disproportionate interference” with their rights.
Julian Milford KC, for the Foreign Office, said the decision was “rational and lawful” and that consular support was “only offered in exceptional circumstances”.
Justice Chamberlain ruled that the decision did not interfere with the family’s human rights.
He continued that entry clearance being granted “did not in and of itself give rise to any obligation to provide consular assistance”.
But he said that the consequences of the decision were “certainly grave” and that it was “irrational”.
Chamberlain said: “Although they have no anterior right to assistance, the effect of the challenged decision is to deny a family of six, including two minor children, the opportunity to escape from a place where they face the daily danger of death or injury from military action or starvation.”
