The Home Office is asking families living in war-torn Gaza to provide fingerprints and photographs before relocating to the UK, a requirement that has been condemned by an immigration court as “unreasonable and unreasonable”.

A legal challenge has been launched against the government after the Home Office told Gazans that their applications to reunite with family in the UK would not be decided unless they provided biometric data.

Although visa application centers in Gaza are closed, many families are struggling to survive amid reduced food aid and bombings by Israeli forces.

In his ruling published on Monday, Judge Jackson said the Home Office failed to consider the families’ circumstances “in a rational way” when requesting biometric data. The judge also said it was “unreasonable and unreasonable” to require the families to prove they were at greater risk than other Gazans.

The judgment found that the Home Office’s decision “unduly interfered with the rights of applicants and sponsors to respect for private and family life”.

The cases of two Palestinian families are being heard together in upper immigration courts. One of the families (known as RM et al) consists of parents and two children aged 13 and 17 who are trying to reunite with their daughter/sister who is studying in the UK. The second family, the WM et al, were a Palestinian mother of four children who wanted to reunite with her British brothers in England.

They live in southern Gaza after being forced to flee their homes. Islington Legal Center and Asylum Aid are supporting the families in their legal challenges.

The immigration court ruled in detail that the RM family fled their home in Rimal, Gaza City, at the beginning of the conflict because the building in front of them was destroyed and their home was damaged.

They now live with other relatives in a crowded apartment in Deir al-Balah in southern Gaza, an area the verdict said “is a key target of tank and air strikes and lacks food, clean water and access”. Medication.” Close friends and family members of the couple have died and been injured, and the couple is suffering “severe mental distress,” the documents said.

The Interior Ministry argued that “despite the difficulties in accessing food and water, this does not mean that they are unable to do so. Therefore, their position is not fundamentally different from that of others in Gaza”.

Referring to her daughter in the UK, a Home Office lawyer said: “As for the sponsor, I note that she has support in the UK through friendship groups and can access medical treatment if needed.”

WM is a mother of four minor children aged three to nine, who the court heard lived in a shipping container in Rafah. The Home Office argued there was “no suggestion that they were the target interests of those directly involved in the fighting”, adding: “It is therefore not accepted that they were personally at risk of harm.”

In light of the judgment, asylum aid lawyer Anastasia Solopova said: “The Home Office must now comply with this judgment, revise its policies and methods and take action on biometric registration requirements Legal means so that more people from Gaza and elsewhere are not unlawfully deprived of the right to decide on entry permit applications.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We have received the outcome of the judicial review process and are considering its implications. Further comment would be inappropriate.”