A Palestinian woman has won a landmark legal battle to move to Britain in a decision that could set a precedent for more Gazan refugees to follow.
The ruling was based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to private and family life. An upper immigration tribunal concluded that blocking the woman from joining her children in the UK would result in “unjustifiably harsh consequences.”
The mother had been living in Egypt after fleeing Gaza. Despite a long separation, the court found she maintained a “close, emotionally interdependent bond” with her daughter, a British citizen, and her son, a refugee.
The ruling was issued despite British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood winning a Court of Appeal case in November that limited the ability of Palestinians fleeing Gaza to use Article 8.
Mahmood’s opposite number, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, warned that the judgment could “open the floodgates” and allow Palestinian refugees to potentially relocate to the UK by citing family connections.
Just last month, a British court awarded a total of £240,000 in taxpayer-funded compensation and legal costs to Fuad Awale, a convicted Islamist double murderer. The court ruled that his treatment in prison breached his rights under—you guessed it—the European Convention on Human Rights.
