Newborns stuck in grim Ukraine ‘baby factory’ as coronavirus lockdown means new parents in UK & US can’t collect them
SHOCKING video shows almost 50 surrogate babies stranded in a Ukrainian 'baby factory' due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Some 46 newborns are crammed in a dormitory at a hotel in capital’s Kyiv - in what looks like a baby factory.
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They are due to be collected by parents from the UK, USA, Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Germany, China, Mexico, Romania and other countries.
Parents have paid between £5,745 and £57,365 for services from the organisation that has assisted them with starting families.
The crying tots are being cared for by staff but the images have alarmed the human rights ombudsman for the Ukrainian parliament, Liudmila Denisova.
“A video was spread on social media and shared via a website of one of Kiev clinics,” she said.
“It showed 46 babies who are currently in one of the Kyiv hotels.
“All these babies were born by surrogate mothers for citizens of various foreign states.”
She said that the video confirms the systematic and large scale provision of surrogate services by Ukraine to the world.
“This video confirms that the situation with the provision of surrogacy services by this clinic is mass and systemic, and surrogacy technologies are advertised and presented as 'high quality goods”, she said.
'MASS AND SYSTEMIC' SURROGATE SERVICES
The babies are highlighted by BioTexCom which appears to have British links.
Denis Herman, lead lawyer for the “centre for human reproduction”, said the babies were there because Ukraine “is among the countries that have completely closed the borders due to Covid-19”.
An administrator called Marina says: “Dear parents! My name is Marina, I'm an administrator of the Venice Hotel.
“Our baby sitters take care of your babies 24 hours a day in a baby room.
“Every day they spend some time with the children in the open air and bathe them.”
The video seems intended to reassure the parents who cannot currently collect their babies.
A female voice said: “There are 46 children in our hotel.”
The hotel appears to be part of the clinic used by BioTexCom.
“Yesterday evening four of them were brought from the maternity house,” she said.
“They are babies from America, Italy, Spain, Britain, China, France, Germany, as well as from Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Mexico and Portugal.”
The coronavirus lockdown meant “it is difficult for us but we handle it well”.
The video states: “We show babies to the parents online and our managers arrange calls.
“It is necessary for us to inform parents about how much their babies eat how they sleep and what their weight is.
“It is heartbreaking to see how parents miss their little ones.
“We wish they were allowed to pick up their children soon.”
The babies are checked by doctors.
'IN GOOD HANDS'
Parents who have paid for surrogate mothers in Ukraine are told: "So do not worry, you babies health is in good hands.”
Paediatrician Tatiana Lisovskaya said: "Our hotel is closed for a strict quarantine.
“All nurses live here.
“We try to avoid any contact with the outside world."
BioTexCom claims to be “a well-developed, ever-expanding, modern centre for reproduction that deals with foreign infertile couples”.
The website states: “It’s not a secret that surrogacy programmes are banned almost everywhere in Europe.
“Egg donation is allowed only in a few countries but quite often these programs offer not very favourable conditions (for patients, as well as for donors).
“In Ukraine, however, all these programmes are absolutely legal.
“That’s why Europeans seek for medical help outside of their home countries.
“For most citizens of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, England and other countries, Ukraine has become the place of the legal conducting of such ART programmes as surrogacy and egg donation.”
The video was strongly criticised by website Rodina, maintained by Catholic Commission for the Pastoral Care of Families.
They posted: “In the vast majority of European countries and American states, commercial surrogacy is prohibited.
“After its ban in India and Thailand, Ukraine is competing with Georgia and Kazakhstan to become the capital of this shameful practice.
“Due to quarantine, the borders are completely closed and surrogate mothers continue and continue to give birth…
“Live goods are crying in the capital, although Kyiv is not ancient and not Rome.”
Ukraine has 16,847 officially reported cases of coronavirus with 456 deaths.
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