High Court overturns decision to deny Palestinian student visa to study at UCC

The woman, who lives in Gaza, was awarded a fully-funded scholarship to study engineering at University College Cork (UCC), but was denied a visa in July on various grounds. File picture: Dan Linehan

A decision to deny an Irish visa to a 20-year-old Palestinian woman seeking to pursue a university scholarship at UCC has been overturned by the High Court.

The court held that there were “significant and demonstrable errors” in the refusal.

Shaymaa Abudalu’s challenge to the refusal is the lead case in a tranche of similar lawsuits taken by Palestinian students denied visas by the minister for justice Jim O’Callaghan.

The woman, who lives in Gaza, was awarded a fully-funded scholarship to study engineering at University College Cork (UCC), but was denied a visa in July on various grounds.

At the High Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Anthony Barr held there were “significant and demonstrable errors” in the decision to refuse Ms Abudalu a visa, and ordered that the student’s visa application be remitted and considered afresh.

Noting the urgency of the case, the judge directed that the application be determined within 10 working days. A stay was placed on the order until Thursday.

The judge’s ruling arises from admissions that the minister wrongly asserted Ms Abudalu had not provided certain financial documentation in her visa application, and that certification she provided relating to her proficiency in English had not been considered by the application decision-maker. The latter came to light on the second day of the trial of the case.

The State had argued the court could “sever” those errors from the refusal decision, as it was not contested by Ms Abudalu that she had not provided bank statements required of visa applicants.

The judge said this was not an appropriate course. “This is because the errors in the decision are not minor. They go to a substantial part of [Abudalu’s] case,” the judge said.

The judge also held that a statutory appeal to the visa refusal was not an appropriate remedy, as it would not be determined until September 2027.

Waiting until then could lead to Ms Abudalu losing the opportunity to pursue her scholarship and degree at UCC, the judge noted.

Many of Ms Abudalu’s immediate family members, including her mother and siblings, were killed in an Israeli air strike in March 2024, the court was told previously.

Documentary requirements

Other grounds to her challenge were rejected by the judge, including her claim that she was entitled to expect that certain visa documentary requirements would be waived. She accepted that she did not provide required bank statements in her application.

Lawyers for Ms Abudalu argued that in 2024 and 2025, visa applications by Palestinians were processed by Irish embassy staff in Tel Aviv. It was claimed that embassy officials — with a greater understanding of the situation on the ground in Gaza — did not insist on a “strict adherence to the documentary requirements”.

It was asserted that when visa processing responsibilities were moved to the Department of Justice in 2026, this approach was “substituted by a much stricter adherence to the requirements”.

Her side also claimed that certain Dáil statements by politicians amounted to representations that certain documentary requirements would be waived for Palestinian students. The State denied any change in policy relating to visa requirements.

The judge held that Ms Abudalu’s side had not established that there was cause for a “legitimate expectation” that she did not have to comply with documentary requirements.

Sarah Cooney, barrister for the State, was granted a stay on the judge’s order until Thursday.