Shabana Mahmood reopened a refugee resettlement route last month, but the Palestinian cases moving through it will be few. The scheme will only refer a very small number of extremely urgent cases already in Jordan and Lebanon.
That leaves people in Gaza outside the initial scope. For Palestinians who have already left Gaza, Irap will interview cases before any referral reaches the UK government.
Mahmood’s refugee announcement
Mahmood announced the reopening at Labour’s annual conference, and the Home Office later said around one in four referrals will be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees fleeing war and persecution. The wording suggested a broad route, but the operating limit is much tighter: only a very small number of urgent Palestinian cases will move, and all of them will be processed in Jordan and Lebanon.
Vicky Moller, co-founder of Communities for Palestinians, said: “The applause at Shabana’s announcement at conference was at the prospect of a resettlement scheme for Palestinians fleeing war and persecution. People understood that would mean rescuing people from Gaza.”
That expectation now collides with the route’s actual design. A Home Office spokesperson said: “To qualify for refugee status under international frameworks, individuals must be outside their country of origin.”
Jordan and Lebanon referrals
Irap said it will refer “a very small number of extremely urgent humanitarian cases to the UK for consideration for resettlement.” It added: “These cases will be referred to Irap by humanitarian organisations in Jordan and Lebanon and Irap will then hold interviews to determine if these cases can be referred to the UK government.”
Irap said the programme focuses on “extremely vulnerable refugees whose lives have become unsustainable in Jordan or Lebanon.” That makes the pipeline narrow from the start: only cases already outside Palestine and already identified by humanitarian organisations in those two countries can reach the interview stage.
The Home Office also said: “Palestinians who remain in Gaza would not initially be in scope for these routes. However, Palestinians who have fled Gaza could be referred to the UK through the International Refugee Assistance Project [Irap].”
UNRWA and the UK
The narrower route sits alongside a separate reality for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA was set up for people whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict, while Palestinian refugees also live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Irap said it does not know how many people the UK government will accept under the Palestinian resettlement programme. “This is ultimately a decision for the UK government and depends on funding as well as local authorities’ capacity,” Irap said. For anyone hoping to use the route, that means referral is only the first gate; acceptance depends on how many places the UK can actually take.
A refugee-focused Youth Soccer camp visit offers a different view of how displaced communities are being reached, while the UK scheme now turns on a much smaller question: how many of the urgent cases in Jordan and Lebanon can clear the referral stage at all.
