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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Crackdown on ‘birth tourism' as pregnant Russians flock to Argentina | |
| 2023-02-12 | |
| [TheGuardian] South American country has seen rise since Ukraine invasion in Russian women arriving to have children and thus gain citizenship. Immigration authorities in Argentina are cracking down on Russian women who since the invasion of Ukraine have started travelling to Buenos Aires to give birth in order to gain Argentinian citizenship for their children. The director of Argentina’s immigration office, Florencia Carignano, said on Friday that a judicial investigation has been launched into what she described as a lucrative business that promises Argentinian passports for the Russian parents. Carignano spoke after 33 expecting women – all between 32 and 34 weeks into their pregnancies – arrived on the same flight late on Thursday. Several of the women were initially turned away at passport control but were eventually let into the country. While the concept of birth tourism isn’t new, Moscow’s isolation from the west as a result of the war has made Argentina, where Russians face no visa requirements, a popular destination for families looking to give their children the privileges of second citizenship. Some 10,500 pregnant Russians have arrived in the South American country in the past year, Carignano said. Carignano said in a Telenueve channel interview on Friday that “5,800 of them [were] in the last three months, many of them declaring they were in the 33rd or 34th week of pregnancy.” The official said that about 7,000 of the women returned home after giving birth, leaving Argentinian lawyers charged with applying for Argentinian citizenship for the baby – and then the parents. “The problem is that they arrive, have their children and then leave Argentina never to come back,” Carignano said. “We cannot allow them to shamelessly lie to us saying that they are tourists when they are not.”
Anyone born on Argentine soil is immediately granted citizenship and having a national-born child accelerates the citizenship process for the parents. The judiciary is currently investigating whether there is some sort of criminal organization bringing Russian women to Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... . While authorities did not say why such a ring would bring pregnant women to Argentina, some speculate the country has the right mix of lax immigration laws with Russians not needing visas, free universal healthcare and a passport that allows access to many countries without a visa. Authorities emphasized officials do not have any issues with Russian citizens arriving in Argentina, but they want to make sure they really have plans to live in the country. "We don’t have any problem with people from any nationality who want to come live in Argentina, who want to raise their kids here, invest in Argentina. The problem is that these people come, leave and don’t return to Argentina and they leave with a passport," Carignano said. Argentina is a country that has traditionally been open to im "These people surely came to have children in Argentina," she said. In late January, Slovenian media reported that authorities had detained two alleged Russian spies and this time the reports said one of the two held Argentine citizenship. "If we don’t start to control who we give passports to what’s going to happen to us Argentines is that they’re going to start asking for visas everywhere and the passport will no longer have the trust that it has with other countries," Carignano said, noting that Argentines can enter 171 countries without a visa. | |
| Posted by:Penguin_of_the_Desert |