The UK government has finally evacuated Manar al-Houbi, the Gaza student who won a fully funded scholarship to pursue her PhD at the University of Glasgow, along with her family from the war-ravaged territory this week.
In October, the Guardian highlighted Houbi’s desperate battle to get her family evacuated after they were denied entry to the UK, despite her scholarship and visa permitting her to bring them.
As part of a UK crackdown on immigration, most international students have been prevented from bringing their dependants.
Shortly after Houbi’s story, the UK government made a U-turn on its policy, stating it would support the evacuation of dependants on a “case-by-case basis”.
Houbi and her family have now reached Jordan and will shortly travel to the UK. They are the only family travelling together from Gaza whose evacuation the British government has facilitated. Most students have had no choice but to leave their families behind, while others have simply refused to take up their places.
Set to expire on 31 December 2025, the UK’s Gaza evacuation scheme has been described by students as beset by delays, poor communication and uncertainty. It has left students stuck in Gaza, where conditions have deteriorated amid floods, escalating food shortages and disease.
Some told the Guardian that they felt pressure from the UK government to travel without their children despite the recent policy change stating they could bring them.
When Wahhaj Muhammad, 32, was advised by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to consider evacuating alone, he believed his family would soon follow. But two months have passed, and his wife and two children remain trapped in Gaza with no clear timeline or assurances from the UK on when they will join him.
Wahhaj Mohammed was advised to evacuate alone, but two months later his family remain trapped in Gaza. Photograph: Courtesy
Since arriving to study for his PhD in Glasgow, Muhammad says he has been consumed by guilt. “The uncertainty affects every aspect of my life here,” he says. “It’s difficult to settle, to feel present or to engage academically when the people you love most remain living under constant threat.”
Muhammad has received no explanation for why his family was not on the last evacuation bus that left this week. British officials said they remained “hopeful” that they would be able to evacuate in the new year but have offered no guarantees.
Another two eligible students who refused to leave their families behind and were not permitted to evacuate this week do not know if they will need to defer their studies for another year or risk losing their places altogether.
Mother-of-three Amany Shaher says she will not travel to take up her university place without her family. Photograph: Courtesy
Amany Shaher expected to have settled well into her master of research at the University of Bristol by now. Instead, as the autumn term draws to a close, she is certain that she will not make it out of the enclave this year.
“None of us know if the UK’s student evacuation scheme will be extended or not,” says Shaher. “We haven’t been given any clear guidance or timelines and have no idea what 2026 will bring.”
The 34-year-old mother of three says when presented with the choice of travelling alone, without her children, she felt nauseous. “How can I even consider leaving my children behind in Gaza?” she asks. “Nowhere else in the world would a mother be expected to part so easily from her children. It’s dehumanising. We have a right to stick together as a family and not be forced to separate – that should not be too much to ask.”
Mohammed Aldalou has a scholarship to pursue his master of research and PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE). But for the past six months, he has been locked in a bureaucratic limbo with British authorities, which he described being “almost as traumatic as the war itself”.
His five-year-old son is severely autistic and non-verbal, and has been without access to treatment for two years. Yet the FCDO has suggested Aldalou take the opportunity to leave while he can – but he refuses. “They should ask themselves what they would do if they were in my shoes,” he says.
Without the guarantee of evacuating together as a family, Aldalou insists there will be no leaving Gaza. “It’s heartbreaking that, after everything we’ve been through, we’re being asked to make this impossible decision.”
Last week, during a closed meeting between the department for education and universities, there was discussion of whether students still stuck in Gaza could begin studies online and if the evacuation scheme could be extended to allow later arrival.
However, sources told the Guardian it was unlikely that the FCDO would extend the scheme without Home Office approval. The FCDO declined further comment, while the department for education said it had nothing to add.
