LONDON: A Palestinian student in the UK has revealed that her family were scammed in their attempts to help her younger sibling flee the conflict in Gaza.
Laila Saliekh, 26, studying in Edinburgh, said the family paid an agency around $3,000 to transfer her sister Katrena Saleh, a trainee doctor, out of the enclave, but correspondence ceased after the payment was made.
Saliekh said Saleh, aged 24, is now sheltering in a tent in Rafah near the border with Egypt. Saliekh told the PA news agency: “We paid $3,000 to an agency and they still haven’t replied to us and it’s been months. We didn’t have a choice and were desperately seeking anyone who could help.”
She said she is “really scared” for her sister’s safety in Rafah, which is the focus of the latest phase of Israel’s ground assault on Gaza, adding: “Our house is gone, everyone is living in tents, where is she supposed to go?”
She thought Saleh would be eligible for assistance from the Ukrainian government as she was born in the country and has a Ukrainian passport.
However, the family has received no help from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry or its embassies in Israel and Egypt.
The family relocated to Gaza when the children were young, before her parents went back to Ukraine in 2020, and then moved to Sweden in 2022 following the Russian invasion.
Saliekh moved to Edinburgh the same year to pursue a PhD in physics, while Saleh remained in the enclave, studying medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza.
Saliekh is trying to raise more money to get Saleh out of Gaza via a different agency, which she said could range from $5,000 to $10,000. “It’s not only crossing the border, there’s additional costs like tickets or a car,” she added.
Commenting on Saleh’s predicament, Saliekh said: “I sometimes feel like she’s going crazy, like laughing hysterically and saying she doesn’t care anymore — you get used to all these horrible things and it becomes part of your day.
“I have seen a lot of pictures of her and she seems to have lost a lot of weight, but she’s distracting herself with some volunteer work at the medical aid points.
“She keeps telling me that she’s fine and she repeats the same thing every day that she’s doing better than most of the people, that she’s grateful for what she has.”
Saliekh added: “I don’t know who is supposed to comfort who, but she’s comforting us and I don’t know how she does that.”
