High Court quashes visa refusal for Gaza student who lost almost her entire family

A 20-year-old engineering student in Gaza, offered a full scholarship at University College Cork, has won her High Court challenge to the Minister for Justice’s refusal of her student visa.

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, Mr Justice Barr delivered judgment in Shaymaa S.S. Abudalu v The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (Record No. 2026/1514 JR). The Court quashed the Minister’s decision of 16 July 2026 refusing Ms Abudalu a long stay student visa. It sent her application back to the Minister for fresh consideration, and directed that (following a short stay) a new decision be made within 10 working days of her fresh application being received.

Surviving the unimaginable

Ms Abudalu has lived all her life in Gaza. When her family home came under fire and every window was shattered, she, her parents and her three siblings fled to her grandparents’ house in the south of Gaza.

On 23 March 2024, a large explosion just outside that house all but destroyed the building. Ms Abudalu lost her mother, her twin younger sisters, her brother, her grandfather, her grandmother, her aunt, three cousins and a cousin’s young daughter. Only she and her father survived.

A wall of the building fell on top of her. She was pulled from the rubble and could not walk for a month afterwards. Despite this, and the trauma of losing almost her entire family, she completed her final school exams with an overall result of 96.7%. She went on to study Artificial Intelligence Engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza, achieving a grade point average of 92.82% in her first year.

A scholarship in Cork, and a refusal built on errors

In June 2026, Ms Abudalu was offered a place on the undergraduate engineering degree at University College Cork, together with a full “wraparound” scholarship. It covers her flights to Ireland, all of her tuition fees, her accommodation, health insurance, a laptop and €10,000 a year for living expenses. She applied for a long stay student visa the same month and submitted her supporting documents, including her financial summary form and evidence of her English language proficiency.

The Minister refused the application on 16 July 2026. In the High Court proceedings, the Minister accepted that the decision wrongly stated that she had not submitted a financial summary form. On the second day of the hearing, it was also conceded that her Oxford ELLT English language certificate, and a supporting letter from the Head of the Language Centre at UCC, had never been put before the decision-maker, despite being sent as part of her application.

The Court held that these errors were not minor. They went to a substantial part of her case, and the Court refused to allow the decision to stand.

Why the Court would not make her wait a year

The Minister argued that Ms Abudalu should be left to pursue the statutory appeal she had lodged on 3 September 2026. That appeal would not be decided until around September 2027, and her request for priority would not even be looked at until early November.

The Court accepted that an appeal is normally the route to take, but held that the rule is not inflexible and that it was appropriate to depart from it here. Requiring her to wait for an appeal would mean:

• losing the chance to begin her degree at UCC this academic year;
• risking the loss of her place and her scholarship altogether, as there is no guarantee they can be deferred;
• remaining in Gaza for at least another year; and
• continuing to be blocked from the UK, where a separate scholarship offer from the University of Edinburgh was refused because of the Irish decision.

Recognising the considerable urgency, the Court set a short deadline for the fresh decision. It noted that an assisted evacuation flight is scheduled for 23 November 2026, and that a prompt positive decision may allow Ms Abudalu to be on it and take up her course at UCC this year.

What happens next

Ms Abudalu can now make a fresh application, with whatever further submissions and documents she considers appropriate. The Minister must decide it within 10 working days.

Sinéad Marmion of Phoenix Law said:

“Today the High Court has recognised that our client’s application was refused on the basis of serious errors, and that she could not fairly be left to wait a year in Gaza for an appeal. Shaymaa has survived the unimaginable. She has lost almost all of her family, and every day she remains in Gaza is a day of real danger.”

Alannah Faulkner of Phoenix Law said:

“The Court has set a clear timeframe for a fresh decision so that she can be on the evacuation flight on 23 November and take up her place at UCC this year. We now look to the Minister to act swiftly and in the spirit of the Court’s judgment, so that this young woman can finally begin her studies in safety.”

Ms Abudalu said:

“I am so grateful to the Court and to everyone who has stood by me. Through everything I have lost, my studies have kept me going. I hope that very soon I will be able to leave Gaza safely and continue my studies, and make my family proud.”

Legal team

Ms Abudalu was represented by Sinéad Marmion, Alannah Faulkner and Harry Robinson of Phoenix Law, instructing Ms Hillery BL.

For media enquiries, contact immigration@phoenix-law.org or call 004428 90 328 383.