UK Faces Legal Action Over Gaza Children Medical Evacuation Refusals
(MENAFN) The UK government is now the target of legal proceedings over its refusal to medically evacuate severely ill children from Gaza—an approach lawyers argue is out of step with Britain's responses to other international crises.
According to a media report published Saturday, the legal challenge has been filed on behalf of three Palestinian children and names both the Foreign Office and Home Office as defendants.
The claim contends that ministers failed to adequately weigh the dire shortage of medical resources in Gaza before denying requests for evacuation. It further highlights a sharp contrast between the current stance and the UK’s previous efforts to assist children in war zones—such as those airlifted during the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Carolin Ott, a lawyer with Leigh Day, the firm spearheading the case, told media : “The UK government has explained its failure to facilitate medical evacuations from Gaza on the basis that it supports treatment options in Gaza and the surrounding region and that there are visas available for privately funded medical treatment in the UK. However, these mechanisms are profoundly inadequate to meet the urgent needs of children in Gaza.”
Humanitarian groups have repeatedly called on the government to create a dedicated immigration channel specifically for medical evacuations of critically ill patients from the enclave.
So far, only two children have been brought to the UK for emergency treatment, arriving in May through the non-profit Project Pure Hope. The care was entirely privately funded. Despite the charity's appeal for a publicly supported Gaza-UK medical corridor, the government reportedly declined the proposal.
The lawsuit asserts that the UK's refusal to act leaves gravely ill children in Gaza without access to life-saving care. At present, Britain has not designated itself as a recipient country for medical evacuations from the territory.
Neither the Foreign Office nor the Home Office has issued a public response to the legal filing.
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