Home Secretary announces new refugee route

Shabana Mahmood announced at Labour's annual conference last month that the UK would reopen a resettlement scheme for refugees.

“Around one in four referrals will be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees, fleeing war and persecution.”

Scheme only accepts those outside Gaza

The body administering the scheme confirmed it would only refer a very small number of extremely urgent cases, all processed in Jordan and Lebanon, not from Gaza itself.

Palestinians say they were misled

Communities for Palestinians said the crucial detail about the scheme's geographic limits was not in Mahmood's speech or subsequent Home Office statements, giving people in Gaza false belief they could apply.

What people understood from the announcement

Vicky Moller, co-founder of Communities for Palestinians, said the applause at the conference was for the prospect of rescuing people from Gaza. People understood the scheme meant exactly that.

“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.”

Home Office defends the scheme's rules

The Home Office said the resettlement scheme has always been for people from outside their country of origin, as required by international refugee frameworks. Palestinians in Gaza would not initially be in scope.

“To qualify for refugee status under international frameworks, individuals must be outside their country of origin.”

How referrals will actually work

The International Refugee Assistance Project will refer a very small number of extremely urgent humanitarian cases from Jordan and Lebanon. It does not know how many people the UK government will accept.

“Irap does not know how many people the UK government will accept under the Palestinian resettlement programme.”

Refugee Council calls for more ambition

Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said the government must recognise Palestinians' particular circumstances and support people in the thousands, not hundreds, no matter where they are.

“They must also recognise the particular circumstances of Palestinian refugees and be accessible to them no matter where they are in the world.”

Expert explains how resettlement schemes work

Dr Peter Walsh at Oxford's Migration Observatory said resettlement programmes are designed for people who have already left their country.

“The roughly 20,000 people resettled to the UK between 2014 and 2021 all came from countries around Syria, with nobody to my knowledge being flown directly from Syria.”