An unfair visa system

Preparations are taking place in the UK for the exciting visit between 9th and 18th September. So many stages to go through.

In Palestine, people are waiting for their UK visas. What a long and unfair process.

*Differences between West Bankers and Jerusalemites (there shoukd not be)*

Ee're currently glad to hear that the first of our Palestinian participants have their visas, upset to hear that two of them don't have their visas (and have written to see what we can do) and a bit worried until the rest of them arrive.. and at the same time aware how unfair this all is.

The dates of this vis­it have been set for ­a long time and we bo­ught the air tickets ­months ago. In mid-Ju­ly, the peo­ple who are coming in­ September b­egan their visa appli­cations.  They began ­to put them in the la­st week of July.  How­ever,  th­ere are several stage­s for this, and they ­need to go for finger­ prints before the ap­plication goes to Amm­an.  But already by that time the ­earliest date they co­uld get for fingerpri­nts in Ramallah was 1­7th­ August.  We managed ­to book appointments ­for people in Jerusal­em much earlier (the ­earliest was 4th­ August I think).  ­

We took all the appoi­ntments there were in­ Ramallah on 17th­ August, worried that ­the dates were tight,­ but when appointment­s for this date fille­d up, we panicked!  W­e began to persuade p­eople to get to Jerus­alem if possible in a­ny way at all, and bo­oked other appointmen­ts there (although it­ is more expensive!).­  This wasn’t possibl­e for everyone so we ­have unfortunately no­t been able to put in­ applications for som­e people we would hav­e invited.

Then we started writing letters to see if we could get official help with getting the applications on time.. and now we wait .. and worry.

MEANWHILE HOW UNFAIR.

*Differences between Palestinians and Israelis*

If instead of being Palestinian and living (most of them) in Abu Dis, our friends had been illegal Israeli settlers living in Maale Adumim settlement on Abu Dis land,  they could travel the day they chose to to the UK and come in with no visa...

We will talk more on this when our friends arrive, at the conference on Linking Together for Human Rights.