There was a tearful farewell for a family deported from the Highlands at daybreak yesterday with no home or jobs to go to.
Shortly after 6am, two taxis whisked the Zielsdorfs from Laggan off to Glasgow Airport en route to Canada.
The UK Government had to organise the transport after cancelling Mr and Mrs Zielsdorf’s driving licences.
The seven-strong family was due to fly to Heathrow and then on to Toronto.
Supportive locals offered hugs and kisses as the family reluctantly accepted its fate after a lengthy and unsuccessful challenge.
Jason and Christy Zielsdorf, who invested £300,000 in Laggan Stores and a cafe and holiday-let business, failed to meet the legal requirements to stay – by employing two full-time for a year – and decided against costly human rights legislation.
Moments before leaving, Jason Zielsdorf said: “Others have it worse than us but we’re now homeless and jobless whilst we had a home and were self-sufficient and contributing to the community.”
He claimed the UK Government was “looking to get rid of people, regardless of whether it’s supportive and good for the community or for the nation at large,” and that his family was “collateral caught in the crossfire.”
Mr Zielsdorf said locals had expressed “sorrow, grief, outrage, bewilderment and disgust” at their deportation.
One of the neighbours who turned up at 6am yesterday to wish them well said the moment was “too sad for words.”
The family, which settled in the UK in 2011, was hastily trying to make a Toronto hotel booking as late as Wednesday night for their arrival home in Canada.
Laggan Stores was known to millions of TV viewers as McKechnie’s in the hit BBC series Monarch of the Glen. It has been on the market since last month.