SALTA – Pregnant Russian women are flying to Argentina in droves in recent weeks in a bid to secure Argentinian citizenship for their babies.
The stats imply that over 5,000 Russian women have entered Argentina in recent months; interestingly, 33 women headed to Argentina on a single flight on Thursday and national migration agency says the latest arrivals were all in the final weeks of pregnancy.
Of the 33 women who arrived in the Argentinian capital on single flight, three were detained because of issues with documentation before being released. The migration in large numbers is being attributed to the war in Ukraine but the Russian women had initially claimed they were visiting Argentina as tourists.
“In these cases it was detected that they did not come here to engage in tourism activities. They acknowledged it themselves,” migration agency head Florencia Carignano said.
The official added that the Russian women wanted their children to have Argentinian passport than a Russian passport as it is very secure across the world and allows visa-free entry to 171 countries. In contrast, Russians can travel visa-free to only 87 countries and having an Argentine child expedites the citizenship process for parents as well.
Russia is facing sanctions in the backdrop of travel and a number of countries have suspended tourist visas for Russians.
There are multiple methods of securing citizenship including through marriage, naturalization, and investment but the easiest of them all is citizenship by birth feeding an industry named ‘birth tourism’.
To take advantage of the situation, a Russian-language website also offers various packages for pregnant women who desire to give birth in Argentina including services such as airport pick-ups, Spanish lessons and discounts on the cost of stays in hospitals. The packages ranges from $5,000 (£4,144), to $15,000 (£12,433).
Meanwhile, Argentinian police has been carrying out raids to bust the network that allegedly provided pregnant Russian women and their partners with fake documents to allow them to settle in Argentina.
