An injured Palestinian child looks on as mourners stand next to the bodies of Palestinians (not pictured), who had been killed in an Israeli strike against the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 10, 2024. (Photo by Reuters)
London, June 4 (RHC)-- The British government refuses to issue visas for Palestinian children who could seek treatment in the country but accepts injured Ukrainian minors, a report has shown. The Middle East Eye (MEE) news and analysis website carried the report on Thursday, citing British doctors and organizations that have been trying unsuccessfully since January to bring five Palestinian children over to the UK for medical treatment.
The children have received the injuries during a genocidal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against the Gaza Strip since last October. According to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, the war has so far claimed the lives of 36,439 civilians, mostly women and children, while leaving 82,627 others injured.
“We have not asked the UK to take all of them or the majority of them, but just to play its part as a wealthy nation with incredible medical expertise,” said Krish Kandiah, founder of the UK-based Sanctuary Foundation, which supports Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, among others.
“We made many, many attempts to try to get a visa for these children and, sadly, despite many good-hearted civil servants, when it got to the highest level, we just heard nothing back,” he said.
This is while, according to Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan, a British-Egyptian pediatric neurologist, the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London alone was currently providing treatment for more than 100 Ukrainian children.
The MEE also cited a case in 2022, when the National Health Service (NHS) brought Ukrainian children with cancer over to England for treatment. “The double standards are very clear for anyone to see. I’m sad to see my own NHS, which is helping patients day in and day out, is unable to do this, not because of [a lack of] willpower from medics, but at a political level,” Abdel-Mannan said.
