Belgium Blocks 13 Gaza Scholars Stranded Without Visas

Thirteen Palestinian students and researchers from the Gaza Strip hold scholarships at Belgian universities for the 2026-2027 academic year — and some already possess Belgian visas — yet they cannot leave the enclave to take up their places. On Friday, 11 September 2026, Belgium’s federal inner cabinet, the kern, failed to reach agreement on granting the visas or organising an evacuation, prompting Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot to withdraw his own proposal and denounce what he called a “hostage-taking” between unrelated dossiers.

A Double Obstacle

The students’ predicament has two layers. The first is physical: Israel tightly controls Gaza’s crossings, and evacuating individuals requires a foreign state to formally request it from Israeli authorities. According to TRT Français, Belgian officials had asked students to file their visa applications in person at consular offices in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv — an impossible journey for Gazans who are not free to move.

The second obstacle is political. For weeks, Minister of Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) has refused to authorise the visas. On VRT’s De Zevende Dag, she warned of a “domino effect.” “It is my duty to warn against the domino effect,” she said. “They act as if it were only thirteen people.” She argued that the students could later request asylum, trigger family reunification, and that people in other conflict zones such as Yemen, Sudan or Afghanistan would demand the same treatment.

Prévot’s Withdrawn Note

Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) took the opposite view. On Friday he tabled a three-part note at the kern: welcoming the 13 scholarship holders, progressively resuming evacuations from Gaza, and contributing financially to a joint WHO-Jordan operation treating sick children in Jordan.

As L’Avenir reported, the note was “well received by two partners, very coldly by another and totally rejected by the last.” One coalition partner sought to link the dossier to an agreement on deportations of illegal residents to Afghanistan and on “return hubs” outside the EU.

“Faced with this hostage-taking between dossiers at the expense of people’s misery, I preferred to withdraw my note,” Prévot said. “Dignity cannot be bought.” He added that he had never refused to discuss the return-hubs dossier, “but not as part of blackmail.” He was bleak about the prospects: “In the current state of things, it is clear there is no consensus within the government to allow these students to be welcomed.”

A Symbolic but Charged Case

As La Libre noted, the dossier is “more symbolic than concretely significant” — thirteen people — yet politically explosive inside Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s coalition, which spans the Flemish nationalist N-VA and the francophone Les Engagés and MR.

Belgium is an outlier among several European states. Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have organised evacuations of scholarship holders in coordination with Israeli authorities, and France is reported to have evacuated 44 students the previous week. “This mechanism has worked successfully for Italy, the Netherlands and Spain,” said Ahmed, a scholarship holder at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a professor at Al-Israa University in Gaza. “Belgium must request the evacuation of the 13 students who received a scholarship from a Belgian university.” He and another student insist they intend to return to Gaza after their studies to help rebuild it.

Herwig Leirs, rector of the University of Antwerp, asked: “If other countries can do it, why not Belgium?” He pointed to a lack of political will. The rectors of all Belgian universities had sent a joint signed letter to Ministers Prévot and Van Bossuyt in June, while the students wrote to the King; the Royal Palace replied, referring them back to the Foreign Affairs ministry.

The scale of the broader problem is far larger than these thirteen cases. According to VRT NWS, Flor Didden of the NGO 11.11.11 said roughly 1,500 dossiers of Gazans who hold a visa but cannot reach Belgium remain pending. Didden called the minister’s position “incomprehensible,” noting the students were invited by Belgian universities and could later help rebuild Gaza.

Political Fallout

The refusal drew sharp criticism from the opposition. PS federal MP Khalil Aouasti called it “incomprehensible and scandalous,” telling Belga via La Libre that “these little bargains within the government completely darken the future of these young Palestinians and of Belgium’s support for Palestine.” He questioned how a government unable to grant a visa to 13 scholarship students could be trusted to recognise Palestine or ban imports from occupied territories. Aouasti said he would question the Prime Minister on the matter the following Wednesday.

What’s Next

Prévot’s own assessment suggests the dossier is frozen. Belgium has still not submitted an evacuation request to Israel for the students, and the fate of roughly 1,500 visa-holding Gazans remains unresolved. The case now moves, at least in part, to Parliament, where Aouasti’s scheduled question to De Wever will test whether political pressure can break a deadlock the Foreign Minister himself appears to consider immovable.