THE Home Office has agreed "special arrangements" for a cohort of students from Gaza to take up fully funded places at UK universities in September.
It comes after significant pressure from academics, universities and charities calling on the UK Government to defer biometric visas and to open a route of safe passage for the incoming students so they can take up their places of study.
More than 40 students in Gaza with full scholarships to UK universities are unable to fulfil their visa requirements due to the genocide, so the students will undergo biometric checks in a third country before travelling on to the UK.
The Israeli government still needs to agree for each student to leave Gaza.
Although the UK Government has approved plans for around 40, a similar number remain without a decision.
Some are recipients of Chevening scholarships, which are offered to international students to study one-year master’s degrees in the UK.
A Home Office source said: “This remains a complex and challenging task, but the Home Secretary has made it crystal clear to her officials that she wants no stone unturned in efforts to ensure there are arrangements in place to allow this cohort of talented students to take up their places at UK universities as soon as possible.”
The UK Government is also working to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK for urgent medical treatment after they were targeted by Israel.
More than 50,000 children are estimated to have been killed or injured in Gaza since October 2023, according to Unicef.
A small number of children have so far been brought to the UK for specialist medical care via an initiative by Project Pure Hope, and they are being treated privately.
