MF & Anor v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellants, MF and KF, are a married couple and citizens of Palestine living in Gaza. On 30 July 2025 they applied for entry clearance under Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsors with Protection) to the Immigration Rules, seeking to join two of their sons in the United Kingdom: HF, who has refugee status, and RF, who has humanitarian protection. HF had been a political activist against Hamas, was twice detained and tortured, and left Gaza in February 2023 after threats to kill him and his family; RF left in July 2023. The Secretary of State refused the applications on 23 December 2025, principally on the basis that article 8 was not engaged and that more appropriate routes existed. The appellants appealed in time on the ground that the refusals were unlawful under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998. Before the First-tier Tribunal the evidence was that MF suffers from severe degenerative spinal disease requiring surgery and daily personal care, which HF and then RF had provided until they fled, and that KF has a herniated disc; the family have been repeatedly displaced and now live in a tent near the "yellow line" in Khan Younis, dependent on remittances from HF and RF. The appeals were heard at Taylor House on 3 August 2026.