Concern over study visa refusal rate for Gazan students

Concern is growing in Irish universities over a high rate of refusal of study visas to students in Gaza who are due to take up college scholarships in Ireland this September.

RTÉ News understands that upwards of 20 Gazan students, who have all been accepted onto fully funded scholarships for third-level courses, have had their visa applications turned down by Irish immigration authorities. Others are awaiting outcomes.

Sources within the universities say the refusal rate this year is in marked contrast to last year, when more than 80 Gazan students were granted visas and left Gaza in an evacuation organised by the Irish Government.

The Department of Justice has declined to give a breakdown of applications coming from Gaza.

However, it has told RTÉ News that by June of this year it had received 69 third-level study visa applications from Palestinian nationals worldwide, it said by last month nine had been granted and 27 refused.

RTÉ News is aware of six applicants who have received refusals since then, dated July.

Last year, 114 long-stay study visa applications were granted to Palestinians worldwide, and 22 refused.

RTÉ News understands that the nine students who have been granted visas are all in receipt of Government-funded scholarships, but Gazan students with non-state-funded scholarships are being refused.

RTÉ News has seen a number of refusal letters sent to students in Gaza in recent weeks, which detail reasons for their rejection.

They include; not supplying original bank statements, a failure to account for gaps in their education, and a failure to supply strong evidence that they will return home once their course of study is completed.

Sources in the universities, applicants, and others working to support students have said that these requirements are virtually impossible to comply with, given the collapse of a functioning society in Gaza.

The Department of Justice has said: "Each application is considered on its own merits having regard to all of the information and documentation submitted, the circumstances of the applicant, the purpose of the proposed travel, previous immigration history where relevant, and the requirements of Ireland's immigration policy and legislation."

Lawyer Kenneth Mann, who is Board Chair of Israeli charity, Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, told RTÉ News that given current conditions in Gaza it would be "practically impossible" for most students to obtain an original bank statement.

The charity provides legal aid to Gazan Palestinians.

RTÉ News has been in contact with two of the students affected. One has been offered a place at Trinity College Dublin to study engineering.

The university confirmed the offer of a fully-funded course of study over five years, with funding sourced from private donors.

Including accommodation, subsistence, insurance, and related costs the value of the scholarship amounts to €38,000 annually.

The young student said they were "completely shattered" by news of the visa refusal.

"What makes it worse are the reasons given - including financial grounds, despite my fully funded scholarship for five years. The logic is impossible to grasp," they said.

In rejection letters sent to two different students in Gaza and seen by RTÉ News, many of the refusal reasons are identical.

Both cite "insufficient evidence of strong obligations to return to your home country".

They state that the applicant "has not sufficiently explained ... gaps in their education/employment career".

One of the students explained that the gap in their education is accounted for by the war and destruction in Gaza over the past two and a half years, which included their family's displacement, the destruction of the family home, and the wholesale destruction of universities and other education infrastructure across Gaza.

Expressing concern at the rejection of study visa applications, a Trinity College source said: "[If this student was granted a study visa] by the time they are legally required to leave the country, they would be a qualified engineer.

"They could go back and help rebuild Gaza. This is what we are talking about," the source added.

"This is not about a brain drain. We are ethically recruiting in Gaza. We want to continue people's education so that they can hopefully go back and rebuild Gaza, as engineers, nurses, the next generation of policy makers and politicians," they added.

More than 12 Irish universities and colleges have offered scholarships to students from Gaza for the coming academic year.

A Maynooth University source said: "We are not a humanitarian organisation. These are students who have excelled and who need a place of sanctuary in which they can pursue their studies.

"100% it means that they can go back to rebuild. For the future, helping to keep this talent alive is hugely important."

A source at UCD said: "None of these places have been given to Palestinian students out of charity. They are all extraordinary students who have achieved outstanding grades in the most despicable of circumstances."

Sources within the universities are keen to stress that the students who have been refused visas, or who have visa decisions pending, have been offered scholarship packages funded by private donors at no cost to the public purse.

RTÉ News has contacted a number of universities but all have declined to comment publicly, as has the Irish Universities Association.

However, sources within the universities, as well as organisations supporting students, say students who were granted study visas and evacuated by the Irish Government last year were not subjected to the same stringent requirements.

They say the State's treatment of study visa applications from students in Gaza has changed this year.

A number of students from Gaza currently studying in Ireland confirmed that they were not asked to provide bank statements or proof that they would return home when they applied for study visas last year.

In the rejection letters sent to students in Gaza they are told that they may appeal the decision within two months.

"An appeal must be submitted in writing," the letters state, and sent to Immigration headquarters at Burgh Quay in Dublin.

"Appeals received by e-mail or fax will not be processed," they continue.

The immigration website confirms this.

"You must submit appeals by post only," it states, advising "put everything into a strong padded envelope".

It states "documents must be original. We cannot accept photocopies".

"There is no internationally recognised postal service in Gaza today," lawyer Kenneth Mann told RTÉ News.

"All this is completely impossible for me to do," one of the students said.

Speaking to RTÉ News over WhatsApp, they explained the insurmountable obstacles they faced.

Original documents such as high school results, destroyed when their home was razed by Israeli shelling; no way of securing new original documents, and no 'address' to speak of.

"The international community is struggling to get food into Gaza, so how can someone think we can receive or send documents? There is no post in Gaza," the student said.

For this student, their Irish visa rejection is especially bitter.

They were also offered a fully-funded scholarship by Carlos III University in Madrid.

"Knowing I could only apply for one visa, and fearing that applying for both might negatively affect Israeli COGAT approval, I had to choose. I placed my bet on Ireland," they said.

Spain managed to evacuate a group of students from Gaza last week.

This student feels had they not placed their trust in Ireland, they might have been among them.