Just days after the Biloela family was granted permanent residency, a despondent Scottish family is being expelled from Australia after a 10-year immigration dispute in which they committed no wrongdoing.
In 2012, Mark Green, a 44-year-old electrical expert, was recruited for his specialised solar installation talents and flew to Australia with his wife Kelly, 45, and daughter Rebecca, 19.
They relocated to Adelaide with the assurance that the firm flying him in would sponsor their permanent residence.
However, every time he was eligible, the employers folded before the paperwork could be completed; this has already occurred seven times to the family’s devastation.
Even though they have done everything by the book, they are being expelled from the nation at 10 a.m. today.
However, the Sri Lankan Murugappan family was awarded permanent residence on Friday, allowing them to remain in Biloela, Queensland, after intervention by immigration minister Andrew Giles in response to public criticism.
However, he refuses to support the Greens and would not even comment on their argument.
This morning, 2GB radio commentator Ben Fordham criticised the Labor minister for his apparent double standards.
‘Don’t ignore the double standard here – the minister is happy to show compassion when there’s enough publicity for him to look like a hero,’ said Fordham
‘He’ll step in to help one family but allow another to be kicked out of Australia. It exposes the hypocrisy of the federal government and politics of large.’
Moving to the United Kingdom will cost $60,000, and they will have to leave behind their beloved dog Maisie due to exorbitant airfare and quarantine costs of $35,000.
The Greens have already spent over $150,000 on immigration attorneys, visa and residence applications, and they must leave the country before reapplying.
‘We sold it all to come out here and then we started again,’ Mr Green told Daily Mail Australia.
‘And now we’re having to sell it all, to go back to Scotland, to try and apply to come back again, to restart again. For the third time.
‘I’m nearly 50. We can’t go through this anymore. There’s nothing for us back in Scotland now.’
He added: ‘This is where I live. This is where my heart is. It’ll never change. Even if I go back to Scotland, here is where I will class as home.’
The family have been on a sponsored work visa since arriving which has meant they need to pay for everything Australians take for granted, on top of paying their taxes.
They were denied access to Medicare or free public state schooling for daughter Rebecca, which costs them $8,000 a year – but they say they paid without complaint.
‘It was the best day of our lives coming here. The best day ever,’ said Kelly, 45, originally from Kilbirnie, 40km south-west of Glasgow.
They want to stay in Australia permanently but currently just need their bridging visa changed from an E-type to a C-type to allow them to apply to stay without leaving.
The family has been undone by firms sponsoring Mark as an employee and starting a three year route to residency, but going bust before the process is complete.
‘The company went into liquidation and which means I have to start again, all three years, all over again,’ said Mr Green, originally from Prestwick, Ayrshire.
‘That’s happened seven times to me. Most of them closed because of warranty issues – they don’t want to guarantee the warranty of the product.
‘It ends up costing them money, so what they do is they shut up shop and they open up under another business name.’
‘It was the best day of our lives coming here. The best day ever,’ said Kelly, 45, originally from Kilbirnie, 40km south-west of Glasgow.
They want to stay in Australia permanently but currently just need their bridging visa changed from an E-type to a C-type to allow them to apply to stay without leaving.
The family has been undone by firms sponsoring Mark as an employee and starting a three year route to residency, but going bust before the process is complete.
‘The company went into liquidation and which means I have to start again, all three years, all over again,’ said Mr Green, originally from Prestwick, Ayrshire.
‘That’s happened seven times to me. Most of them closed because of warranty issues – they don’t want to guarantee the warranty of the product.
‘It ends up costing them money, so what they do is they shut up shop and they open up under another business name.’
He has nothing in Scotland and nowhere to live, with his elderly parents unable to cope with the family joining them while they wait for their visa to be approved.
‘Everything I hoped for here is gone,’ said Mr Green.
‘The stress is terrible. Absolutely terrible. It’s not fair. Not fair at all.
‘Nobody has been in contact with me about trying to sort this out. All they say to me is I have to leave the country.
‘My mum and dad are nearly 80 – as much as they would love to see us, they don’t want a family staying with them. It could take up to two years.
‘I thought I’d have my own company and my own home by now but instead our life is in turmoil.’
Their case has now been taken up by Adelaide politician Frank Pangallo, who compared them to the Tamilese Murugappan family from Bilgoela in Queensland, who had their visa conditions changed to let them stay despite arriving by boat.
‘They didn’t do it legally, unlike the Greens, and they got preferential treatment,’ Mr Pangallo, of South Australia’s Best Party told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Forcing a family to leave a country they’ve called home for 10 years simply to return to their country of origin to re-apply to return to Oz seems pointless and ridiculous.
‘And this is all happening while governments grapple with changes to the country’s skilled migration program due to massive shortages across the country.’
A plea to the previous Liberal immigration minister Alex Hawke was rejected and fresh appeal to the new Labor immigration minister Andrew Giles has fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Pangallo added: ‘If you want skilled migrants to come into this country, you better give them an undertaking they’ll be able to stay here and not be booted out when it suits you.
‘It’s absolutely disgusting.’
Although he talked extensively on the Biloela issue, Mr. Giles’s spokesperson stated that the immigration minister never commented on specific cases.
She then told Daily Mail Australia: ‘The minister does not comment on the individual circumstances regarding the Green family.’