A computer science student from Gaza said the refusal of his visa appeal “broke him” after a three-year process of seeking escape from the “genocide that took my house, my street, my university”.
Ahmed Abuhassan (22) had his study visa application rejected due to “financial reasons”. He holds an offer of a full scholarship to study computer science from UCD.
On Friday, he challenged the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan’s refusal of visas in the High Court along with three other students, but he lost the appeal.
The other three students’ visas were granted.
Speaking to The Irish Times, he said “timing is everything” as UCD is holding his place until November 2nd.
If his situation is not reconsidered in the next few days he will lose the opportunity to study in Ireland, he said.
Phoenix Law has been acting on his behalf.
He was enrolled in a degree course in Gaza before “the war interrupted” his studies.
He said he reached this point after three years of applying and “being pulled out from under the rubble of my own home with the clothes on my back, after chasing every charging point for a borrowed laptop and every signal steady enough to reach the world, through a genocide that took my house, my street and my university”.
“I gave my hope to Ireland because Ireland knows what hunger and rule by force do to a people and because a university here looked at my work and gave me a place.”
He said the letter refusing his visa “broke” him.
Abuhassan is asking the Government to act so his name “can be added to the next group leaving Gaza, before the chance I spent the years of this genocide building is gone”.
Following the refusal of his visa, he said his mind shut down. “There is a human being behind that case and refusing it there, this way, would have an effect. They didn’t handle it the human way.”
He said his home in Gaza was hit by an air strike in October 2023.
Two years later, after being displaced “multiple times”, he was allowed to return to his neighbourhood and now lives in “what’s left of that house”.
He said he hopes O’Callaghan will reconsider the decision “because there is no reason” for his visa to be refused, and that UCD sponsored him in “full”.
He said he had placed his “hope and trust” in Ireland.
“All the Irish people were supportive, it was very helpful,” he said. “They were dealing with us in a human way. They were seeing the humans behind the case.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said it “does not comment on individual cases”.
UCD and Phoenix Law have been contacted for comment.