Mark Green’s family fights deportation to Scotland after Nadesalingam ruling

An Adelaide electrician facing deportation to Scotland is using the precedent set by the Nadesalingam family to argue he and his family should be allowed to stay.

Kelly, left, Rebecca and Mark Green with dog Maisie and rabbit Marmaduke at their Adelaide home. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

An Adelaide electrician facing ­deportation back to Scotland ­despite being brought out to fill gaps in the labour market is defying an Immigration Department order to leave the country.

Instead, Mark Green is using the precedent set last week by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in granting permanent residency to Biloela’s Nadesalingam family from Sri Lanka to argue that he and his family should also be ­allowed to stay.

Mr Green, his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Rebecca, were scheduled to leave Adelaide on a 10pm flight on Wednesday but have now vowed to remain in Australia to fight for their right to stay. It follows a last-minute phone call from SA Premier Peter Malinauskas to Inmigration Minister Andrew Giles urging him to consider their case.

Mr Giles confirmed on Wednesday night he would grant the Greens a one-month extension on their deportation order so that their lawyer’s submission could be considered.

Mr Green is on a bridging visa and has worked the entire time he has been in Australia, save for a few brief periods when the solar panel companies employing him went bust.

He has never sought or received any assistance from the Australian taxpayer.

He was headhunted by the solar industry in SA 10 years ago amid a shortage of electricians but is now facing deportation after a former employer bungled his visa paperwork and then misled him about the error.

On seven occasions, Mr Green has been forced to pay $4000 to renew his 457 visa, plus a ­further $5000 to immigration ­lawyers to handle the application. His total bill to remain in Australia is about $200,000, and as a non-citizen, he also paid an $8000-a-year fee to send his daughter to their local southern suburbs public school.

The Nadesalingam family after their return to Biloela in June. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Green’s decision to fight came after the family sought advice from a new immigration lawyer with the help of SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo.

Through their lawyer, the Greens are lodging a new ­appeal direct to the Immigration Minister framed around his intervention in the case of the Nadesalingam ­family last week. Mr Pangallo said there should be no difference between the treatment of the Nadesalingams and the Greens.

“In the Nadesalingam family matter, the minister exercised his power to allow the Sri Lankan family to remain permanently in Australia after ‘careful consideration of all relevant matters’,” Mr Pangallo said.

“I urge him to do the very same thing with the Greens.

“If not, the minister needs to ­explain how he can approve ­permanent residency to the Sri ­Lankan couple – who entered the country illegally – and their two young children, but deny the same approval to a family who entered the country legally and have been paying their own way, including taxes, for the past decade.

“The Greens are of excellent character and fill all the requirements of people seeking permanent residency in this country.

“They have never been a burden on taxpayers.

“They deserve to be granted permanent residency, particularly in the middle of a skilled workers crisis.”

Mr Green said he and his family loved Australia, had built their lives here and had no real connection to Scotland anymore.

“We want so desperately to stay in Australia,” he said.

“This has been our home for the past 10 years and a place where we have established a ­future for ourselves.

Mark Green, his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Rebecca

“We have no home to go to in Scotland. My daughter came here when she was nine and considers Australia her home.

“It is not fair we are being forced to leave the country because a previous employer lied to me.”

The Australian first covered the case of the Greens in June and since then they have received a groundswell of publicity and community support.

At the time, the minister’s ­office said it was unable to make any comment on specific cases.

Mr Green’s employer is fully supportive of his application to stay and is willing to sponsor him, if and when the times arises.

Mr Pangallo said the minister needed to act on the case but that its handling suggested it had yet to reach his desk.

“Departmental staff have handled Mr Green’s matter and have sent back generic responses that indicate they haven’t bothered to talk to Mr Green about the unique predicament he has found himself it,” Mr Pangallo said.

“That’s why the minister – not one of his advisers or a public servant – must personally review the Greens’ case, because only he has power under the Migration Act to personally intervene and reverse the decision to evict the Greens from Australia.

“If he can do so for the Nadesalingam family to score some political points, he can do likewise for the Greens.”