The first group of critically ill and injured Palestinian children who will beneit from UK healthcare treatment have arrived in the UK, the Prime Minister's office has said.
The children are the first be taken to the UK for treatment by the government, in efforts co-ordinated by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Sunday that the children had left Gaza. The size of that group was not made public.
“It was a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them leave Gaza”, she said. “But I'm determined to make sure that we can do our bit to help those injured families and also to help students get into their courses this autumn.”
A source involved in the planning had previously told The National they expected the children to arrive to the UK around the end of August, after the scheme was announced at the end of July.
The Department of Health did respond to questions about the number of children expected in the first group. Earlier reports suggested this could be between 30 and 50.
But concerns have been raised previously about the UK government’s biometric identification requirements, which delay evacuations and mean the more urgent cases are treated elsewhere.
The only biometric data processing office in Gaza was closed since the war began, meaning that people from the strip are unable to apply for British visas.
They have to travel to Jordan or Egypt to do this before they are permitted to fly to the UK.
There have been calls by MPs and campaign groups for the UK to abandon its ID requirement.
The UK’s decision to treat Palestinian children on the renowned NHS came after more than 18 months of campaigning from MPs and British doctors.
Countries such as Italy and Spain which have taken dozens of Palestinians for treatment waived their biometric schemes. Italy also stepped in to take two child patients in an emergency when the UK could not.
So far, 7,640 patients have been evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment, according to the WHO. But only three are currently being treated in the UK, in private care funded by donations.
