Soha Abu Eid, a 31-year-old determined to study a nursing PHD in the UK in honour of her friend and colleague Fatima, has been blocked from taking up her place by UK Home Office requirements
A starving midwife living in a refugee camp is one of dozens of hopeful Palestinian students blocked from UK universities by government bureaucracy.
At least 70 people living in Gaza have overcome enormous odds to earn places and scholarship offers from UK universities off the back of applications written in the famine-stricken warzone. Many wrote essays from tents in refugee camps, using 2G phone internet to download forms while the war raged around them.
Glimmers of hope in the form of acceptance letters have been cruelly extinguished by the Home Office, which insists they must submit biometric information to travel – despite the only authorised-biometric centre in Gaza closing in 2023.
Salvation has turned to yet more despair for the students, as the UK Government refuses to waive the impossible, Kafkaesque requirement in favour of online visas, as countries including Ireland and Italy have.
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Among them is Soha Abu Eid, a 31-year-old determined to study a nursing PHD in the UK in honour of her friend and colleague Fatima.
As military aircraft flew overhead, UNRWA worker Soha told the Mirror her fears that she wouldn’t make it to next summer, having lost 20kg since October 7 and many loved ones to a war that has claimed 60,000 Palestinian lives.
“My main goal right now is to survive. I lost my friend, Fatima, who was killed back in November 2023. She was doing a midwife PHD. I thought, ‘I need to complete her dream. I need to do this to honour her’. Both of us had a real connection to women. The end goal is rebuilding the health care system,” Soha explained from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip.
That dream looked much closer to Soha when she received a scholarship offer from Ulster University, in June 2024.
“It was the second day of Eid. 12pm Gaza time. I was stuck to my phone refreshing my email, leaning out of my grandma’s window for signal. I didn’t even finish the email. I started to scream and jump. It was a huge moment for me. My cousins and sisters were next to me. Even my mum started crying.”
As much as these scenes echo those that will take place in schools across the UK on A Level results day on August 14, Soha’s joy was shortlived.
Nora Parr, a researcher with the University of Birmingham, explains that from there the process for Gazan students reaches an unpassable, inexplicable dead-end. “Once you have your unconditional offer and have submitted English language assessments, then you apply for your visa. This is a convoluted process; the first thing it asks you to do is to go to a biometric centre, which is now closed,” Nora said.
“They have had extraordinary difficultly applying for biometric differment. It has all been dead ends, the students have found no way to get round it. The UK says they have created a route, but they have not. No one has been able to access it. Not a single student.”
Right now there are more than 70 Gazan students accepted to UK universities, 48 with full scholarships.
As it stands, none will start studying in the UK come September. For Soha, that means her offer of a place and scholarship will expire, along with her dream of spending three years in the UK to perfect her profession before returning to rebuild Gaza.
“I deserve to be there. I deserve to take up my place. But I can’t defer again. I don’t think I’ll be alive next year.”
This week more than 70 MPs have signed a letter asking the government to delay biometric checks for the students from Gaza so they can study in Britain.
A government spokesperson said: “We are aware of these students and are considering how we can best support. Of course, the situation on the ground in Gaza makes this extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to find a solution.”