LONDON: Twenty-five Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip who were awarded scholarships at British universities will lose their places for this year if they are not evacuated from the war-ravaged territory by the end of this week, university chiefs told the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.
The students received fully funded places to study for undergraduate degrees, master’s and doctorates at Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Sussex, and University College London.
However, they could lose their places if they are not included on lists for evacuations planned for Oct. 22 and 26 and remain stuck in Gaza, university chiefs warned Starmer in a letter.
Vice-chancellors, principals and presidents from the seven universities also criticized a government ban that prevents the Palestinian students from bringing dependents with them to the UK. They urged ministers to use their “powers of discretion” to allow families of students to settle in the country, The Independent newspaper reported on Wednesday.
They said Palestinian students face an “impossible choice” between the chance to attend a British university and leaving their families behind in a war zone. Only nine of the students would like to bring dependents, the newspaper reported.
Students pursuing a doctorate can begin their studies later, but the others might lose their places because the next evacuation lists will not be available for another month, the university officials said.
They praised the government for the assistance it provided for previous evacuations of scholarship students from Gaza, and its efforts to secure a ceasefire in the territory, and requested urgent updates on a timeline for the evacuation of the remaining students.
“We are increasingly concerned that some eligible students are yet to be called forwards for the evacuations next week, and a small number of students have been given the impossible choice to leave behind their children in order to take up their university places, including babies as young as three months old, or children where there is no other parent alive,” the officials wrote.
UNICEF plans to evacuate students and their families from Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Oct. 26, pending approval from the UK’s Foreign Office.
Thirty-five British rabbis and bishops endorsed the call from university chiefs on Wednesday, saying that “compassion should not be hindered by bureaucracy.”
