A 22-YEAR-OLD GAZAN is making a direct appeal to the Minister of Justice to “look at his case” after another student is to have their visa refusal reviewed following a ruling from the High Court.

This week the courts overturned a decision to refuse a visa for a student, Shaymaa Abudalu, who’d been accepted to study at University College Cork (UCC). The initial refusal was made by officials in the Department of Justice who said that there was insufficient documentation to support her application. 

While the court’s decision applies to Abudalu’s and 27 other applications that the firm representing her, Phoenix Law, said were refused on the same basis, there are others who were refused on different grounds. 

That’s the case for Ahmed Abuhassan, who was accepted to study computer science at University College Dublin (UCD), who said his visa was refused over a “misunderstanding” between the university he previously studied – the Islamic University of Gaza – and the department.

His appeal for the initial visa application refusal was turned down on 9 October, and now UCD has given him until the end of November to secure a visa, or the offer of a place to study will be withdrawn. 

Speaking from the ruins of his family home in Gaza City – where he was pulled out from under rubble after spending hours trapped in the aftermath of an airstrike in 2023 – Ahmed told The Journal that he is still hoping that even without a court order, his case can be reviewed. 

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“Ireland refused my visa on a single doubt, whether my funding would be there for me straight away and whether my university truly stood behind it. That doubt was never put to me or to my solicitors, and it came from poor communication between my university and the department and a misunderstanding of how my financial sponsorship works. 

“Had it been put to UCD, it would have been answered at once, and it was answered the very next day, in writing, by UCD’s own foundation,” he explained. 

Ahmed says that every week that passes is a week lost in a degree course that he fought “for years” to gain a place in. 

When he was displaced to northern Gaza for two years during the war, during which time he lived in a tent during cold winters, Ahmed said he “chased every charging point available for a borrowed laptop with a cracked screen” to make progress towards gaining a full four-year scholarship at UCD. 

When he was able to return to the rubble of his family’s home he rebuilt it, and set up solar panels on the roof so he would have electricity, and a steady access point to Wi-Fi. 

Ahmed said that he is glad for his fellow student that her case will now be looked at again, but that he is still hoping that within the time he has left, there could be a change in relation to his visa too. 

“The Minister doesn’t need a judge to set this misunderstanding right,” he said, adding that he is appealing to Jim O’Callaghan’s “humanity” to “look again at a refusal that came from a misunderstanding and communication”. 

The 22-year-old has hopes of returning to Gaza after completing his degree in Ireland to set up a programme to help children improve their computer skills. 

“Airstrikes are still a daily occurrence here. All of my friends have died in the war, thankfully, my close family members and I have survived. I only have less than a month to try and secure a change on this and take my university place, so time is against me, but I’m hoping it can happen,” he added.