Scottish locals back petition to stop young jeweller being deported

Almost 3,000 Scots have signed a petition to stop a young Russian jeweller from being deported.

Evgeniia Balashova, 23, is currently at risk of deportation after she was declined a visa extension by the Home Office due to problems registering her address with officials.

Balshova, who has her own jewellery company Evgeniia Balashova Jewellery, moved to the UK from Murmansk at the age of 17 and spent four years in Glasgow as a student, graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 2016.

In a bid to stay in Scotland the jeweller, who specialises in 3D printed nylon, has launched an online petition, which has secured 2,636  signatures in two days.

Balashova posted on her website: “Being able to stay in the UK would mean an absolute world to me and my future. Because of the nature of my jewellery and the unique technology it uses, it relies on the resources available here in the UK, the ones that are not even readily available in Russia.

“Going back to Russia would mean erasing the last five years of work and development and starting everything from scratch. It will mean that everything I built will have to be destroyed due to a fault of a technical mistake. My lovely workshop space is here, the incredible support of the makers community is here, my friends that have become family are here.

“I made a commitment to this country when I first moved here and it would be incredibly distressing not to be able to continue my life the way I know it.”