It is all to easy to rail against bureaucracy. Often frustrating, it is sometimes nevertheless necessary.

At other times, however, a rigid adherence to rules and procedure is simply dunderheaded.

The apparently insurmountable visa problems preventing Canadian teacher Sine Halfpenny from taking up a teaching post on the Isle of Mull are a case in point.

She is qualified to teach in Gaelic, which is music to the ears of Bunessan Primary School. It is attempting to open a Gaelic Medium Unit but received no applicants for the teaching post from within the UK.

Ms Halfpenny has fallen foul of Home Office rules which govern the availability of working visas. While she has the offer of a skilled job that cannot be filled by a UK citizen, and has the required English fluency, she has apparently fallen foul of a rule which doesn’t permit experienced workers to take up a job unless it pays above a certain salary.

This is perplexing. It is plain there need to be rules to restrict the granting of visas. Many other countries operate similar systems to ensure their own workers are not disadvantaged. It is clear too that the UK Government feels it must respond to public concern about immigration. Reducing net migration to the tens of thousands is a long-standing Conservative Party pledge – and the government is still a long way from meeting it.

Hostility in sections of the media to uncontrolled immigration undoubtedly reflects a real concern, particularly in parts of England, about pressure on local services and jobs as a result of migration from Europe and beyond. However other parts of the UK – particularly Scotland – could do with more not fewer arrivals, to support the economy and meet workforce needs.

Where there is a clear gap to be filled, it makes no sense to apply the rules so rigidly.

This is only the latest incident in a series of troubling decisions by immigration officials to affect Scotland, notably the refusal of a visa to Ugandan television star Nisha Kalema in August, which saw the cancellation of a play at the Edinburgh Festival, a similar refusal for an Iranian Children’s author ahead of the Book Festival and the rejection of Syrian minister Reverend Rola Sleiman who was unable to take up an invitation to attend the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland earlier in the year.

Screening people to ensure they are capable of supporting themselves on arrival in Britain, and that their presence is justified is the right thing to do. But faith is undermined by cases such as that of Malawian rapper Piksy, who had to send his apologies to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after his visa was refused – accompanied by a form bearing the words “insert reason here”.

Such a heavy handed approach is damaging for the UK’s reputation internationally. But often it has a more direct cost too – in this case ,the loss to Mull of a talented Gaelic teacher and perhaps the loss of the dream of a Gaelic medium unit. The Home Office should review Ms Halfpenny’s case, and relent.