Legal briefing on the rights of stateless Palestinians in the UK September 2025 particularly relevant in circumstances where Palestinians face more restrictive criteria for family reunion, including if they are residing in the UK on the basis of an immigration status other than refugee or humanitarian protection. Finally, the challenges Palestinians face in exiting Gaza further hinder their attempts to secure family reunification, undermining their right to family reunification as a matter of UK law. Even where a claim for family reunion is successful, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) may not provide consular assistance to the applicants to exit Gaza. In practice the SSHD has taken the FCDO’s refusal to provide consular assistance as a reason to refuse predetermination of Palestinians’ applications for entry clearance, but the FCDO has also refused to assist families who had not yet been granted visas by the Home Office.161 As a result, neither the FCDO nor the Home Office are taking responsibility for the exit of Palestinians who would otherwise be entitled to family reunification as family members of recognised refugees in the UK. A recent UK High Court decision has found that the decision of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs to refuse consular assistance to a family from Gaza seeking to reunite with a UK national family member was unlawful and required reassessment. The family, who had conditional leave to enter, were refused consular assistance on two occasions. The Court recognised the dire conditions facing the applicants in Gaza, and held that the Secretary of State had failed to consider the ‘exceptional’ nature of the applicants’ circumstances in relation to their conditional leave to enter the UK. The Secretary of State had also failed to consider Israeli policy and the actual number of those in Gaza with conditional leave to enter the UK who are in the same position as the applicants (which stands at about 38 individuals), rather than citing baseless ‘floodgates’ arguments.162 The refusal of the Home Office to pre-determine applications on the basis that FCDO assistance will not be provided effectively excludes Palestinian refugees in the UK from exercising their right to family reunion, which again demonstrates Palestinians’ inability to access the same level of protections as other refugees, in violation of their right to respect for private and family life under Article 8 ECHR. This is compounded by the fact that Palestinian refugees in Gaza are already excluded from resettlement in the UK. 4.1.2. Family reunification for stateless sponsors In the UK, the partners and children of stateless persons may apply for leave to remain as family members of the stateless persons in accordance with paragraphs 410 to 416 of the Immigration Rules Part 14. While the 2024 Appendix Statelessness had introduced a requirement for dependants to apply via Appendix FM (which governs general family reunion routes including for British citizens and people with settled status), this change effectively removed the facilitated family reunion rules for stateless sponsors which existed in the Part 14. Following the successful High Court challenge against this policy in Asylum Aid v Secretary of State for the Home Department, on grounds that the policy was discriminatory, this requirement no longer applies.163 The Home Office now acknowledges that relevant applications are to be assessed under Part 14 of the Immigration 161 See UK Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), AK and Others, judicial review no. LON-000689 (18 April 2024), paras 30, 87, 102. In this case, the SSHD noted that her refusal to pre-determine an application for entry clearance outside the immigration rules did not interfere with Article 8 ECHR as it did not consider the applicants to have a reasonable prospect of leaving Gaza. The Upper Tribunal did not accept this, noting that other possibilities to exit apart from FCDO assistance exist and that therefore the refusal to pre-determine the application did amount to an interference of Article 8. 162 UK High Court of Justice, R (BEL and Others) v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs [2025] EWHC 1970 (Admin) (28 July 2025). See also Matrix Chambers, ‘High Court quashes United Kingdom’s refusal of consular assistance to Palestinian family seeking to leave Gaza’ (28 July 2025). 163 UK High Court of Justice, Asylum Aid, R (on the application of) v SSHD [2025] EWHC 316 (Admin) (14 February 2025). 33