More than 70 MPs have signed a letter asking the government to delay biometric checks for 80 students from Gaza so they can study in Britain, Sky News can reveal.
Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Barry Gardiner are leading the charge, asking Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to defer the requirement, so the students can take up their university places in September.
However, shadow home secretary Chris Philp says the biometric checks should not be deferred, arguing they are “an essential part of our security arrangements”.
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In order to obtain a UK visa, applicants must provide a photo of their face, as well as their fingerprints. The Home Office guidance says these data points “play a significant role in delivering security and facilitation in the border and immigration system”.
UK visa process for Gazans ‘all but impossible’
In the letter, the MPs raise the case of Haia Mohamed, who they describe as a “young poet in Gaza”, who has won a scholarship to Goldsmiths College in London.
But neither she nor 79 other successful applicants to UK universities are able to travel to the UK because providing the required biometric data is “all but impossible”.
They write: “Even before the war, leaving Gaza to pursue higher education was a complex process. The ongoing siege and restrictions made travel extremely difficult, but in the current state of constant bombardment, shootings at aid sites, and an IPC-declared famine, this process has become all but impossible.”
In an email to MPs asking them to sign the letter, Ms Mohamed and Mr Gardiner are far more blunt, saying: “Unless the government makes rapid progress with offering visas and coordinating evacuations over the next week, students who should be starting university…
