In a move that is as farcical as it is shameful, Irish immigration authorities have refused large numbers of study visas for students from Gaza seeking to enrol at universities.
RTÉ say 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.
The farce lies in the nature of the refusal letters, which read like a sort of cruel joke. RTÉ reports the reasons given for refusing applications to study 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.
Gaza students face inhumane rejection letters
Many of us have trouble digging out old bank statements from wherever we left them several months ago. That task becomes harder still when a genocidal terror force like the Israeli Occupation Forces has turned virtually everything around you to dust and rubble, dropping the equivalent of more than six atomic bombs on your tiny strip of land.
Gaps in education become more understandable when the same murderous ‘army’ has committed scholasticide — the attempt to annihilate all education in Gaza.
Indeed, as one of the students told RTÉ:
…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.
As for returning to the occupied territory, the Irish universities in question are adamant they intend to help Palestinians develop the skills needed for rebuilding the wrecked territory. A source from Trinity College told RTÉ one of their potential students would have the chance to qualify as an engineer, and could go back to help rebuild Gaza.
They went on:
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.
A University College Dublin (UCD) source 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.
Gaza has no postal service, applicants told to use mail
And if a Palestinian didn’t want to return to Gaza in the event of so-called ‘Israel’ continuing the holocaust it shows no signs of ending, then would that be so wrong either? Under international humanitarian law, no one is obligated to return to an extermination camp.
Any student wishing to remain in Ireland after study would have every right to claim asylum. That Irish immigration authorities seem intent on ushering them back into the jaws of death immediately upon completion of study shows an utter moral bankruptcy at the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, not that this should be a surprise.
Like rubbing salt in a wound inflicted on some of the most desperate people on the planet, the refusal letters state that appeals must be submitted in writing. It goes on to say that those sent by email and fax “will not be processed”. It goes on:
You must submit appeals by post only.
As RTÉ points out, there is no functioning postal service in Gaza. One of the students described the demands as “completely impossible to do”.
Zionist lobbying or immigration panic maybe to blame
The refusals mark a shift from the previous year, when authorities granted 80 study visas for students from Gaza. Quite what prompted the shift is hard to say.
The Irish government has doubled-down on its Zionist policies this year. It has rejected sanctions on the Zionist entity as its own citizens were being tortured in IOF captivity. Additionally Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, and his sorry crew have also demanded that the Irish football team fulfil its fixture against the terrorist pseudo-state.
They have also watered down the Occupied Territories Bill which restricts only a small amount of trade with “illegal settlements”. The latter is an arbitrary distinction given all of so-called ‘Israel’ is land stolen from Palestinians. They previously reassessed the bill under direct pressure from the US ambassador. It’s not implausible that something similar is afoot here.
The other possibility is that this is a fresh capitulation to the far right’s continuing confection of immigration panic. These racists continue to gain traction, using more overtly hateful rhetoric.
Martin’s government has been happy to embolden them with their policy stances, such as Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, refusing to rule out potentially illegal off-shore “asylum seeker return hubs”. Martin offered only meek criticism of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s vile racist ramblings on a voter’s doorstep.
Some combination of these inexcusable factors is surely to blame, as no logic or morality could justify the rejection of salvation for people suffering under one of history’s great crimes.
Featured image via the Canary
