GAZA — The UK Home Office is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza by refusing to issue onward travel assurances. The department has maintained a suspension of refugee family reunion applications despite inter-agency readiness and worsening humanitarian conditions as of July 2026.

Families in Gaza who applied to reunite with an immediate family member before the suspension have been blocked from joining loved ones in the UK. The Home Office is not providing the required onward travel assurance (OTA) for families evacuated from Gaza, preventing their final transit to Britain. This policy has created a stalemate where the Foreign Office has stated it is ready to evacuate people from Gaza, but the Home Office requirements prevent the process from completing.

The Home Office is using legal challenges to block families from coming to the UK. Officials have deployed several senior barristers to single legal cases involving Gaza families. In a 2026 hearing, the department relied on a last-minute policy reversal to justify maintaining the suspension of the family reunion route.

Bassem Abudagga, a PhD student separated from his family, represents one of the cases affected by these delays. The Foreign Office has agreed to help with evacuating Abudagga's family, but the Home Office said his family will have to wait until December 2026 before officials make a decision about whether to grant an onward travel assurance. On 15 July 2026, the Home Office responded to descriptions of conditions in Gaza from Abudagga’s lawyers. "While this is acknowledged the conditions your clients face in Gaza alone are not considered to amount to compelling circumstances under the [relevant] guidance," the department stated.

Another Palestinian refugee in the UK is separated from his wife, their three children aged nine, 12, and 14, and his 17-year-old adopted nephew. The 17-year-old nephew was orphaned by the war in Gaza. Sarah Crowe, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, represents some of the families trapped in Gaza hoping to reunite with immediate family in Britain.

The Home Office announced in September 2025 that it was suspending refugee family reunion applications. The department suspended the Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsors with Protection) route citing financial sustainability concerns. This decision occurred despite a 30% annual increase in refugee family reunion grants to 20,817 in the year ending June 2025.

The Home Office stated that new, more restrictive rules for refugee family reunions would be announced in the spring of 2026. No announcement regarding new refugee family reunion rules has been made as of July 2026.

"Under our reforms to create a fairer asylum system, family reunion will no longer be automatic," a Home Office spokesperson said. "Those seeking to bring family members to the UK will need to meet stricter criteria." The Home Office’s 2025 decision to suspend refugee family reunion applications was initially framed as temporary but has persisted beyond its expected review deadline.

The process for refugee family reunion applications remains suspended. Applications for refugee family reunions made before the suspension announcement continue to be processed, yet families in Gaza remain blocked. The Home Office’s 2025 policy shift redirected refugee family reunion applications to Appendix FM. This route offers a 2.5-year renewable leave rather than a 10-year settlement route, significantly complicating long-term family reunification.

Appendix FM requires £29,000 annual income for spouses, £13,900 in fees, and English language proficiency. Legal advocates have deemed these requirements incompatible with refugee circumstances. The fee of £13,900 represents 47.9% of the £29,000 annual income threshold. In some cases, the Home Office has stated that family members, including small children, pose a security risk because they come from a "territory where terrorists operate".

Families with a right to leave Gaza are currently evacuated via Jordan. The Home Office states that biometrics are obtained from families before they travel to Jordan. However, the visa center in Gaza has been closed since October 2023. Belgium, France, Italy, and Ireland are facilitating evacuations of families from Gaza, while the UK process remains stalled.

A 2026 High Court ruling in Safe Passage International v. Home Office mandated that the Home Office cannot automatically delete refugee family reunion applications without considering 'exceptional circumstances.' The ruling overturned the 240-day biometric enrolment deadline for Gazan claimants. Additionally, a 2026 court ruling found the Home Office had failed to disclose internal analysis showing the suspension had not reduced pressure on local authorities. This finding contradicted the department's public justification for the policy.

Some refugees in the UK were granted leave to remain on the basis of having been persecuted by Hamas in Gaza. Research titled The rights to refugee family reunion was published in 2019 in Research Handbook on International Refugee Law. A study titled The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries was published in The Journal of Economic Perspectives in 2020.

Another study, The End of the Deterrence Paradigm? Future Directions for Global Refugee Policy, appeared in the Journal on Migration and Human Security in 2017.

The suspension of the Appendix Family Reunion route affects thousands of applications and separates families in active conflict zones from relatives in the UK. The policy shift to Appendix FM imposes financial and linguistic barriers that legal advocates argue are insurmountable for refugees who have fled persecution. The Home Office's deployment of senior barristers to individual cases indicates a sustained legal strategy to uphold the suspension despite court mandates requiring consideration of exceptional circumstances.

The disparity between the Foreign Office's readiness to assist with evacuations and the Home Office's refusal to issue onward travel assurances shows an inter-departmental conflict in handling the crisis. With other European nations such as Belgium, France, Italy, and Ireland facilitating evacuations, the UK's stance isolates it from regional efforts to reunite families. The lack of announced new rules beyond the spring 2026 deadline leaves families in uncertainty, with decisions delayed until late 2026 for some applicants.