Highland MP Ian Blackford today called on the Home Office to “show some compassion” to an Australian family facing deportation from the UK.
Professional couple Gregg and Kathryn Brain, whose seven-year-old son Lachlan speaks fluent Gaelic, moved to Scotland in 2011.
They came on her student visa, intending to move onto a two-year post-study work visa after that.
But the Home Office cancelled the scheme in 2012, forcing the family to apply for a tier two visa instead.
This is for people from outside the European Economic Area who have been offered a skilled job in the UK.
Mrs Brain, 48, completed her degree in Scottish history and archaeology last year and had lined up a post that would have qualified.
As her student visa was close to expiring, she applied for an interim visa to allow time to sort out the sponsorship paperwork.
That was refused, although Immigration Minister James Brokenshire agreed an extension after the SNP’s Mr Blackford intervened.
But then – in a terrible stroke of bad luck – Mrs Brain’s job offer fell through due to a change in the employer’s circumstances.
Mr Brain then identified a suitable job at Highland Council so the Home Office gave them until the end of May, but the position was later withdrawn after it was filled internally.
As it stands, without a job offer in place that qualifies, come May 31, the family will be forced to leave the UK.
In the meantime, neither parent has been able to work since mid-March when they received a letter stating their right to do so had been abolished, requiring them to quit their full-time jobs without notice.
To compound their situation, the family’s landlord in Dingwall asked them to sign a six-month lease – which they could not do – or leave, so they are now living in a friend’s house.
Mr Brain, 49, who worked for the Queensland Department of Education, said he respected the Home Office’s right to change the rules to meet the evolving needs of the country.
But he added: “That said, there would be little harm in grandfathering it so the people who came here under a set of rules could continue to have those rules applied to them.
“We have done everything that was asked of us and the deal then changed.”
The family is hoping the Home Office will show some discretion in their case.
Mr Blackford, who represents Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said: “We need the UK Government to show some compassion, to recognise the circumstances the family is in.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “All visa applications are considered on their individual merits, and applicants must provide evidence to show they meet the requirements of the immigration rules.”
Alex Salmond raises issue at Westminster
Former first minister Alex Salmond raised the family’s plight at Westminster last week, calling for a statement from Home Secretary Theresa May.
Speaking in the Commons, he said the self-supporting Brains had come to the UK under the fresh talent initiative and had contributed their money and efforts to the community.
The Gordon MP added: “I include in that their young, seven-year-old son Lachlan, who has known no other home but Dingwall and whose first language is Scots Gaelic.”
To Tory Cabinet minister Chris Grayling, he went on: “Do you feel no shame at all that your party’s narrow obsession with immigration statistics could result in a huge injustice being perpetrated against this young family and a huge disservice being committed against the people of Scotland?”
Leader of the House Mr Grayling promised to draw the case to Mrs May’s attention.
But he added: “It is important to remember that, if people come here for a temporary period, it does not automatically mean that they will have the right to stay here at the end of that.”
Highland MP Ian Blackford bemoaned the axing of the post-study work visa which would have enabled the Brains to stay and make a valuable economic contribution.
SNP Westminster Leader Angus Robertson described the family as “the kind of people we need”.
He said: “Scotland’s problem has never been immigration; it has been emigration. People have come to our shores from all kinds of countries, and they have contributed in all kinds of ways that have made Scotland the country it is today.
“I appeal to the prime minister and Home Office to consider that case and reverse the ruling.”
Call for government rethink
A newly elected Highlands MSP has put forward a motion to the Scottish Parliament urging the UK Government to rethink the Brain family’s imminent expulsion.
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch member Kate Forbes has written to Tory leader Ruth Davidson urging her to support her call for the Home Office to reconsider its decision.
Ms Forbes said: “For Gregg and Kathryn Brain the Highlands are their home.
“It’s where they’ve chosen to make their lives, to study, to work and to raise their young son Lachlan. They’re part of the fabric of their local community – contributing in great measure economically, culturally and socially.”
Ms Forbes’s motion, which has received backing from fellow SNP and Green MSPs, urges the UK Government to reintroduce the post-study work visa.
It praises the “huge contribution” the family have made in the Highlands and claims that Home Office policy is depriving Scotland “of people and families, such as the Brains, who it believes are integral to the country’s economy, culture and society”.