Sir, – Conor Healy’s article rightly highlights the plight of Palestinian students refused Irish study visas (“‘Every day we wait is a gamble for us’: Palestinian students continue to face visa rejections”, August 17th).
These students are fully funded for the entire duration of their studies and will place no burden on the State. Quite the opposite: they are exceptional young people whose presence here would benefit us. Many managed to raise most of the required funding themselves, while living through the unimaginable horror of war in Gaza.
Ahmed Abuhassan, the student featured in the article, had been advised to prepare for imminent evacuation when the devastating news of his visa refusal came through. The grounds for refusal are absurd: how can anyone post an original bank statement from a country with no functioning banking or postal system?
These cruel visa refusals do not reflect the pro-Palestinian sentiment of the Irish public, and I doubt they were the intended outcome of any Government decision. I ask the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, to urgently review these visa refusals on humanitarian grounds and to allow Irish universities to welcome these talented students as planned in September. – Yours, etc,
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Dr MEL Ó CINNÉIDE,
Associate professor,
School of computer science,
University College Dublin.
