CROWDFUNDING website Just Giving has removed a page that was set up to try to raise money to send a family “home” to Australia – a year after they faced deportation from Scotland.
The page was set up earlier this week by someone claiming to be Stuart Campbell, to pay for tickets for Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their son Lachlan.
Last year, the family faced a lengthy legal battle to remain in Dingwall, where they had made their home for five years.
They moved here under a Scottish Government and Home Office-backed initiative to repopulate the Highlands. But, in 2012, the UK Government scrapped the post-study work visa scheme on which they had pinned their hopes. It was then their legal battles started.
Kathryn was studying at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Lachlan had all his formal education in Gaelic.
Gregg had been working throughout that period, but was told by the Home Office in March that he was no longer allowed to.
Their high-profile campaign to remain came to an end when Kathryn was offered a job as museum curator for Macdonald Hotels and Resorts at their flagship Aviemore resort and they were given leave to remain for 12 months.
They had used crowdfunding to finance their battle with the Home Office, and set up another page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/gregg-brain to try to raise the £12,000 needed to cover legal costs and Home Office fees to extend their visa to four years, which would enable Gregg to work here.
But the fake web page called them “the SNP poster family” and “spongers”.
Gregg has been doing temporary work, and told The National: “I’m having a chat with some people next week and I may well be driving a truck till late at night. I’m doing whatever I can to try to raise these funds.
“But when you’ve had £26,000 taken out of your account and you’re in debt because the Government wouldn’t let you work and people want to be paid back, and you want to try to put food on the table and raise £12,000 for the new visa fees, there’s nothing this side of being a Colombian drug mule that’s going to achieve that.
“If the people who set up the page had just put a meme of a crowdfunding page to send us back I would’ve thought ‘just another troll’, but when they actually set it up I thought it was a big step too far.
“I think there’s something missing inside some of these people and they’re more deserving of pity than anger, but I was struggling a bit to see the funny side of it.
“But if they raised any money at the end you’d think they would’ve sent it to us and demand that we spend it on a one-way ticket.”
A spokesperson for Just Giving said there had been no complaints about the page “but it is going to be closed as it violates our terms of service”.
The case of the Brains came to parliamentary prominence thanks to their MP Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, who raised it on several occasions in the House of Commons.
However, they are not the only migrant family who have faced calls to quit Scotland after trying to make their homes here. New Yorkers Russell and Ellen Felber, came to Scotland six years ago and settled in Inverness.
They bought and refurbished the Torridon Guest House and spent £400,000 it into an award-winning establishment that regularly attracts five-star reviews on travel websites.
But their application for a second visa extension was refused when officials retrospectively implemented a rule change.
A week before Christmas they received a letter telling them they had to leave, which resulted in Ellen being re-admitted to hospital through stress.
Their appeal against the refusal was heard at an immigration tribunal four months ago. Since then, the couple of have heard nothing.
Russell said yesterday: “It’s four months since the hearing and nothing. Our solicitor’s had no word either, so we’re living day by day.
“We’re staying busy – we need to stay open and pay the bills and stuff. I thought they’d put our case on a shelf and forgotten about us.”
Also in the Highlands, Scott and Nicola Johnson and their daughter Lauryn have been waiting as long as the Felbers to find out about their appeal.
Scott is American, and his wife and daughter are Scots-born, and he has been involved in a battle over a settlement visa.
The family live in Tain, and travelled to Glasgow before Christmas for Scott’s appeal hearing. Since then, they’ve had no word.
Nicola said: “We’ve not heard a single thing. I read somewhere that Theresa May has been backing down on some cases because they’ve taken the child into consideration.
“I don’t know what they think they’ll achieve by making people like Ellen ill and keeping people hanging on.
“We all just want to get on with our lives, but it’s the not knowing.
“We’re settled and we’ve got to the stage where we think ‘what happens, happens’.
“The ball’s back into their court and we have to sit and wait.”
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