Home Secretary agrees special biometric check arrangements for Gaza students

The location caput has approved peculiar arrangements for students successful Gaza who person been offered fully-funded scholarships astatine UK universities.

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Yvette Cooper volition let a cohort of students to person their biometric checks carried retired successful a 3rd state earlier they question to the UK to instrumentality up their assemblage places successful September.

It comes aft Sky News reported that much than 70 Labour MPs had signed a missive asking the government to hold biometric checks for the students.

In bid to get a UK visa, applicants indispensable supply a photograph of their face, arsenic good arsenic their fingerprints. The Home Office guidance says these information points "play a important relation successful delivering information and facilitation successful the borderline and migration system".

Earlier this month, Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Barry Gardiner asked Ms Cooper to defer the request truthful the students tin instrumentality up their assemblage places successful September.

A fig of Chevening student students successful Gaza person already been informed that they volition beryllium supported to question to a 3rd state to springiness their biometrics earlier coming to the UK to commencement their studies successful the coming weeks.

The UK did person an authorised centre successful Gaza that was capable to process biometric data, but it was closed successful October 2023 aft the Hamas attack, and arsenic Israel's warfare successful effect to the atrocity got nether way, according to The Guardian.

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As a result, the missive by the Labour MPs called connected the authorities to "defer biometric information screening for pupil visa applicants based successful Gaza and unfastened a harmless transition to alteration these young radical to fulfil their world dreams", pointing retired that different countries successful Europe "have taken proactive steps to guarantee harmless evacuation routes for students bound for their countries".

However, adjacent with these assurances from the UK, the Israeli authorities inactive needs to hold that each idiosyncratic pupil tin permission Gaza.

A Home Office root said: "This remains a analyzable and challenging task, but the location caput has made it crystal wide to her officials that she wants nary chromatic unturned successful efforts to guarantee determination are arrangements successful spot to let this cohort of talented students to instrumentality up their places astatine UK universities arsenic soon arsenic possible."

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine posted connected X: "I could've cried this greeting astatine the quality that the Foreign Office is allowing 50 students from Gaza to travel to UK. Our universities - including Edinburgh - offers them the accidental to alteration their lives and assistance rebuild their communities."