High Court to hear Palestinian student visa cases amid urgent Gaza concerns

Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan defends his criminal legal aid reforms as he speaks to reporters at a firework awareness event at Dublin Fire Brigade's training centre. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire

Dozens of applications for judicial reviews into the refusal of Palestinian student visa applications could be heard next week after a High Court judge deemed the matter “literally a matter of life and death”.

A minimum of eight applications – and potentially many more – will be heard following an agreement reached on Wednesday between justice minister Jim O’Callaghan and lawyers for four students.

The High Court had been due to hear the students’ judicial review challenges this week against the refusal of visas allowing them to pursue fully funded scholarships at Irish universities.

However, Mr Justice Anthony Barr was told on Wednesday that the cases had been settled following an offer by Mr O’Callaghan to determine the students’ appeals by close of business on Friday.

With the appeal process for student visa refusals normally taking a year or more, and with their courses already underway, the students had sought an order requiring the minister to prioritise their appeals.

Among the reasons cited for refusal of the students’ visas was that they had submitted insufficient documentation of previous education or work qualifications.

Lawyers representing the four students argued that the civilian infrastructure needed to obtain such documents from a bank or post office no longer exists in Gaza.

They argued that the minister’s stance was irrational, unreasonable, disproportionate and discriminatory, and failed to respond to the necessary urgency of the situation.

Mr O’Callaghan had opposed the students’ actions.

Urgent hearing ordered

Following the minister’s agreement to prioritise the four students’ appeals, allowing a decision by Friday, lawyers representing dozens of other students made a separate application to the High Court on Wednesday.

Granting an urgent hearing on the grounds that it was “literally a matter of life and death”, Mr Justice Garret Simons directed that a rolled-up hearing take place on Tuesday, October 13, with the State to file its opposition papers by lunchtime on Monday, October 12.

He said the court recognised the urgent and extreme circumstances in which the other students who had been refused study visas find themselves.

With Israeli authorities requiring 11 days’ notice before evacuations of civilians from Gaza, it is believed that the last possible evacuation this year from the besieged enclave is scheduled for October 26.

This would mean all cases would need to be resolved by Thursday, October 15, at the latest.

The High Court will convene for two days from Tuesday for a rolled-up hearing on the lead cases, while all other filed cases will be mentioned alongside them.

At least eight such cases will be heard, with solicitors likely to continue filing further applications over the coming days.

Palestinian visa refusals rise

More than two million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters in Gaza, where an estimated 80% of structures – approximately 200,000 buildings – have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed, according to the UN.

Figures supplied to the Irish Examiner by the Department of Justice show that in 2025, Ireland refused 22 of 164 long-stay study visa applications from Palestine, representing a 13% refusal rate.

This year, 114 of 138 applications were refused, representing an 83% refusal rate.

Year-on-year, Irish refusals of study visas to Palestinian students have increased by 418%.