Gaza refugee says sister-in-law ‘would be alive’ if Home Office had let her come to UK

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians amid the ruins of Gaza City. Maryam and her family were sleeping in tents while she had cancer without any medical facilities to treat her. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP View image in fullscreen Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians amid the ruins of Gaza City. Maryam and her family were sleeping in tents while she had cancer without any medical facilities to treat her. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP Gaza refugee says sister-in-law ‘would be alive’ if Home Office had let her come to UK Anwar, who lives in Glasgow, says Home Office refused visa application despite Maryam having cancer A man living in the UK has said he believes his sister-in-law who died from cancer in Gaza would still be alive today if the Home Office had agreed to bring her and her family to Britain. Anwar, who lives in Glasgow, fled Gaza in 2020 and was granted refugee status in the UK in 2021. After the destruction of large areas of Gaza 2023, he applied to bring his brother Hassan, Hassan’s wife, Maryam, their two young children and other family members to the UK in October 2025. He said the Home Office rejected their application. The process required them to travel to a visa application centre (VAC) for biometric checks, but there was not, and still is not, a VAC in Gaza. It is difficult for Palestinians to leave the territory to access a VAC elsewhere. In April this year the family asked the Home Office to waive this requirement and grant permission for “predetermination” of their application and “biometric excusal”. The Home Office is understood to have rejected this request, so the family launched a legal challenge. The Home Office agreed to reconsider its decision but issued a new refusal in July. Prior to the second Home Office refusal, and shortly after Maryam gave birth to Ismail, who is now seven months old, she was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, which had spread to her lungs. Doctors in Gaza said they did not have the facilities to treat her. The family provided the Home Office with medical evidence concerning Maryam’s condition, including cancer test results and medical referral reports. They also provided evidence of their living conditions in Gaza, which involved sleeping in tents and shortages of food, medicine and clean water. Anwar said the Home Office again refused the family’s request for predetermination and biometric excusal but that it accepted the evidence of Maryam’s cancer.