Opinion
17 Sep 26

Student activists chain themselves to Department of Justice protesting Palestinian student visa rejections

Gaza Student Visa Refusal Protest on August 19, 2026. Copyright Malone Graham/hotpress.com

"The government cannot claim to stand with the Palestinian people and deny these students the chance to learn the skills that will help them rebuild their lives," wrote Amy Kennedy.

Student activists from Trinity College chained themselves to the Department of Justice in protest of 103 Palestinian student visas being denied.

"In the wake of 103 Palestinian students having their visas denied by the Irish Department of Justice, we are protesting on this, the first day of the return of the Dáil, with one demand: review and accept the visa applications of these students in time for the deadline of tomorrow, the 17th of September," reads a statement from Amy Kennedy, the president of the Trinity College Dublin Students' Union.

The students staged the demonstration to protest the refusal rate of long-stay study visas for Palestinian scholarship students. The protest began on Wednesday evening, with 20 remaining overnight - some constant and some on rotation, with additional supporters both last night and this morning.

The Student Union's Communications Officer, Matthew Kurt, released a statement early this morning that protesters had "no plans of leaving until the visa rejections are reversed." Some protesters later moved to the back exit to block all entrances and exits. They remained until the deadline passed at 12 pm, 20 hours in.

In Kennedy's statement, she explained the rationale for the protest.

"Students from across the country have been coming together for the last month to fight for these students' right to study. Students who should be their classmates and their colleagues in our universities ... We are some of these students. We want our Palestinian classmates here, the universities want them here, they desperately want to be here.

"They have studied through Israeli genocide and scholasticide of horrific proportions for the opportunity to come to Ireland. The government cannot claim to stand with the Palestinian people and deny these students the chance to learn the skills that will help them rebuild their lives and their destroyed home. It is disingenuous to describe this as simply a policy decision."