What is believed to be the first UK visa issued to a Gazan refugee has been approved thanks to help from a group of local mums.
The visa has been issued to Amer a 13-year-old orphan who was badly injured in a bombing raid.
His uncle, Dr Yousef Khatib, a former a consultant radiologist at Glangwili Hospital, lost nearly all his immediate family in the bombing in March. Only his nephew Amer survived.
Dr Yousef, who now works for the NHS in Liverpool, has been fighting first to get Amer out of Gaza to hospital in Egypt and then to join him and his family in the UK.
During this process, Cwtch Pals, a group of mothers from Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion raising funds to get children and families out of Gaza, has been instrumental in helping.
“Late in March a doctor in Glangwili asked if I could help his colleague, Dr Yousef Khatib,” explained Cwtch Pals’ Vicky Moller.
Dr Yousef had lost almost his entire Gazan family in a single bombing. Only one nephew had survived but was badly injured.
“I rang Dr Yousef and his voice was broken as he told me he could not work or do anything but seek to rescue his nephew lying on the floor of a crammed hospital in Gaza at risk of bombing,” said Vicky.
Dr Yousef appealed to the British public for help and within a week100,000 people helped raise £20,000 to get Amer to a hospital in Egypt and pay for his treatment.
Cwtch Pals and other groups supported these efforts, enlisting the help of Lord Alf Dubs, himself a Jew saved by the kinder transport, and the help of the Egyptian Embassy in London.
The next step was to get Dr Yousef a visa to leave the UK to be by Amer’s side in hospital and this too was achieved.
“Yousef had told me in his broken voice that if he could not get permission for Amer to join his family in England they would have to take their three daughters from school and emigrate to give Amer a loving family able to support him, wherever he was,” said Vicky.
Vicky said that other families in the UK with injured, orphaned young relatives in Gaza have applied for visas so that that child could join their family in Britain, but each application had been turned down.
Vicky was present at the debate in Parliament, forced by a 100,000 signature petition, earlier this month where the matter of visas for Gazan refugees was discussed, but was disappointed with the minister’s response to cross-party calls.
Undaunted, Vicky encouraged Dr Yousef to apply for Amer’s visa and lobbied MPs to ask the minister to approve the application for the teenager to join his family in the UK.
“Today I learned that the application was successful,” said Vicky. “There are tears of relief at this tiny chink of light in an utterly dark moment in human history.
“The credit goes to every one of the people who signed that petition forcing the debate, as well as campaigners like Safe Passage, and yes, our local Cwtch Pals who are making a lasting difference for a few families, lighting tiny candles in the dark.”
You can find out more about the work of Cwtch Pals is on Instagram and Facebook.
Next month the group is holding a fundraising Gig for Gaza, featuring Timbali, The Undercover Hippy and A Band Named Brian on June 7 at Trehale Farm, Mathry.
For more information on the group, or to help in any way, contact members through Facebook.
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