Belgium Refuses Evacuation Plan for Gaza Scholarship Students
- Belgium has refused to evacuate 13 Palestinian scholarship students stuck in Gaza.
- The refusal centers on 13 scholarship recipients who secured fully funded academic placements at Belgian universities but remain trapped due to ongoing conflict and border closures.
- Salwa Abu Elhaj, a business administration graduate from Gaza, had been offered a funded place in KU Leuven’s Master of Communication Sciences program.
Belgium has refused to evacuate 13 Palestinian scholarship students stuck in Gaza. The decision leaves academics and university rectors deadlocked with federal officials over travel permits and security requirements, according to reports from The Brussels Times and The Guardian.
Belgium Rejects Evacuation Requests for Gaza Scholars
Trapped by War and Border Closures
The refusal centers on 13 scholarship recipients who secured fully funded academic placements at Belgian universities but remain trapped due to ongoing conflict and border closures.
Salwa Abu Elhaj, a business administration graduate from Gaza, had been offered a funded place in KU Leuven’s Master of Communication Sciences program. Abu Elhaj described the scholarship as one of the happiest moments of her life after she walked for up to an hour to find a decent internet connection to submit applications and attend interviews amidst war and famine.
Other selected scholars include Ahmed Alsalibi, who was offered a postdoctoral position at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) to study how resource-constrained health authorities can use artificial intelligence to dispatch ambulances efficiently, and Zuhair Dardona, also chosen by ULB to research infectious disease spread driven by displacement and infrastructure damage.
Academic Leadership Condemns Political Deadlock
University rectors and academic leadership have sharply criticized the federal government’s stance, denouncing the political deadlock.
According to Middle East Monitor, several Belgian university rectors condemned the refusal, while the French-speaking universities head Véronique Weyembergh stated that officials cited logistical issues and deemed the evacuations impossible.
An Open Letter to Federal Officials
In an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Bart De Wever and federal officials, the scholarship recipients stated they fully understood that Belgium must maintain strict immigration and security requirements.
The students wrote that they were not asking for those requirements to be waived, but rather for a practical and lawful way to fulfill them under exceptional circumstances. Abu Elhaj criticized the barrier, stating that those blocking the evacuations are destroying dreams and preventing people with a genuine desire to contribute from pursuing their futures.
Contrasting European Pathways
While Belgium has maintained its refusal, other European nations have established pathways for Palestinian scholars.
Italy established a university corridor in May 2026 allowing more than 70 students to take their places in Italian universities, and the United Kingdom has implemented a separate scheme for scholarship students from Gaza. Meanwhile, the European Commission stated that any evacuations remain a matter for individual member states, noting that its own organized evacuations from Gaza have been strictly limited to medical treatment.