Palestinian woman uses ECHR to avoid Gaza refugee ban setting framework for more to follow

Article Eight guarantees the right to respect for private and family life.

An upper immigration tribunal agreed the Home Office's attempts to block the move would have "unjustifiably harsh consequences".

The mother, who does not speak English, was living alone in Egypt after fleeing Gaza, but wanted to join her daughter, a British citizen, and son, a refugee, in the UK.

Despite being separated for 16 years, the court found they had maintained strong family bonds and regular contact through WhatsApp.

The mother had also visited her daughter in Britain and supported her through cancer and other medical treatment.

The decision comes despite Shabana Mahmood's Court of Appeal victory in November, which restricted the ability of Palestinians fleeing Gaza to use Article Eight.

The Home Secretary sought to make it harder to invoke Article Eight, ending "dubious" family connections and making only immediate relatives a viable route to the UK.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the ruling risked "opening the floodgates" to Palestinian refugees using family ties to move to the UK.

Such judgments from immigration tribunals prevent the Government from "deciding who does, and who does not, come into the UK," he said.

"We cannot ship in the parents of every immigrant in the UK – and this ruling could blow open those floodgates. The Government must appeal this judgment.

"But more than that, we need to abolish the immigration tribunal so the Government can make these decisions alone, and we must come out of the ECHR."

A lower tribunal had ruled the Home Office's decision to refuse the mother's entrance into the UK to join her children "would result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for [her] and for her children in the UK and consequently amounts to a disproportionate interference with their right to family life under Article Eight".

While the Home Office appealed this decision, it was upheld by an upper immigration tribunal.

The tribunal concluded: "In light of the unchallenged expert evidence on the role of family in Palestinian and Gazan culture, the judge made no error in taking into consideration cultural and social traditions as well as the fact that until recently she had never lived alone.

"That evidence spoke of the expectation among Gazans that she would live with her daughter in the UK who was living in relative security and that it would be considered 'unusual and improper' for her to be living alone.

"Not doing so would be 'viewed as the failure to honour the family and elicit censure and condemnation'."

Judge Kamara noted the family had a "close, emotionally interdependent bond", with the separation having "profound psychological implications" on the daughter.

The mother, who is said to have been suffering from post-traumatic stress after losing up to 90 family members int he conflict, was living alone in Egypt and had no legal status there.

The daughter was also suffering mental health troubles.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are disappointed in the court’s decision, and are now considering this judgment. It would not be appropriate to comment further on this case at this stage.

"More broadly, the Government is overhauling the domestic application of Article Eight to reduce the number of spurious appeals, while protecting those genuinely in need."