While the phenomenon of Russian women who come to the country to have Argentine children grows, a judicial investigation will try to unravel what happens with the agencies that promise "express procedures" in the midst of the
birth tourism
business .
Ekaterina, Ana, Inna, María, Natalia and Emilia had arrived in Buenos Aires on Ethiopian, Turkish Airlines and KLM flights with pregnancies between 30 and 34 weeks.
They were detained Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for not being able to explain where they would be staying or what their tourist plans would be.
With a habeas corpus and with the intervention of the lawyers Liliana Borysiuk and Christian Rubilar, they were allowed to enter Argentina and were released from any accusation.
According to their lawyers, some had their partners already installed in Buenos Aires, others arrived at the house of friends of relatives, but -always according to the version of the lawyers-
none had paid any manager or agency
to carry out the procedures for them. migrants or to coordinate their deliveries.
Last week six Russian pregnant women were detained in Ezeiza who later had to be allowed into the country.
Photo Martin Quintana -
Since the invasion of Ukraine, some 10,500 Russian citizens
have arrived in the country ,
according to migration authorities, but 7,000 of them have already left.
This trend alerted the agency.
"From the permanent analysis carried out by Migration of migratory movements, we detected a
significant increase in the entry of Russian citizens in recent months
. That is why we decided to investigate and interviewed 350 of them who were in advanced pregnancy," published the director of Migrations, Florence Carignano, in the networks.
And he asserted: "In the interviews we discovered that this organization offers them, in exchange for a large sum, a birth tourism package with the Argentine passport as the main reason for the trip. We have already provided the data to the federal Justice to continue taking care of our
passport
" .
In those last four words seems to be the key to the concern of Migrations on the subject.
"Argentines have achieved, incorporating technology, procedures and work, have one of the safest passports in the world that
allows entry without a visa to 173 countries and obtain it for 10 years in the US.
This is a privilege that we must take care of and a responsibility with those countries," added the official.
Precisely, due to the current context, it is more difficult for Russians to obtain a visa to enter the United States.
Carignano spread his statement using a screenshot from
Ru Argentina
, the page of Kirill Makoveev, lawyer and owner of one of the sites that promote these "services."
Ru Argentina, the page that Carignano showed in the statement in which he spoke of "mafia organizations."
"Argentina has a history and legislation that embrace migrants who choose to live in the country in search of a better future. This does not endorse
mafia organizations
profiting by offering gadgets to obtain our passports to people who do not want to reside in our country," he argued in your statement.
This case is being carried out by Judge María Romilda Servini, in charge of Criminal Court No. 1, who charged three people and ordered the search of two apartments in luxury towers in Puerto Madero.
But it is not clear who the defendants are or what the crime is, nor if it is a single organization that carries out this type of business with citizens from Russia,
desperate to avoid military service
and evade the restrictions that other countries put for its citizens.
The judge must investigate whether, in addition to offering these services, those in charge of processing them also forged documentation or offered false promises to their clients, promising them express procedures that, if they complied with the law, would be impossible to achieve.
Although children born in the country are automatically Argentine, their parents could receive citizenship by court order,
a tricky business that only a few specialized lawyers know for sure
.
Those rulings can take anywhere from six months to a year and a half after the baby is born.
They can also be carried out when verifying work and housing in the country, after two years of living in national territory.
Raids in Puerto Madero in the case of Russian pregnant women.
PFA photo
Among the suspicions that revolve around these "managers" are the presentation of false work contracts, false paternity to obtain citizenship through newborn babies and even same-sex marriages, among some of the "strategies" for which they charge between
15,000 and 35,000 dollars
.
When asked by
Clarín
, Kirill Makoveev replied: "Due to the public information about the alleged criminal cases in which my name supposedly appears and about which I currently have no information, my lawyers ask not to do more interviews while they try to get access to the materials of the alleged causes".
"The passport for parents is the fastest in the world
," it advertises on its fully translated Russian-language website.
In some of the links, she explains how to do the process without intermediaries, but also offers her "vip" services to those who want advice from him.
The agencies charge between 15 and 35 thousand dollars for the procedures to access the Argentine documentation, according to the researchers.
PFA photo
The representative of
Ru Argentina
denies having been charged with any crime
, like the citizen held in Ezeiza, Valentin Kazantsev (38), a technological engineer who was held since Friday.
Kazantsev arrived on a flight with 16 pregnant women and his wife and his son.
He used an expired passport to leave Russia, according to him, and reported for loss, according to Migration sources.
Kazantsev would not have, at the moment, any link with the organizations that bring people to Argentina, but he
was involved in the scandal over the six pregnant women
who were detained between Tuesday and Friday.
The managers of these services work in
Telegram
groups , where they create groups and communities where they disseminate migratory and tourist information in Argentina to Russians who can pay for it.
Then they establish contacts and generate ties with clinics and lodgings near the most visited areas of the City of Buenos Aires.
MG
look too
Russian pregnant women in Argentina: a gang that brought the women and got fake documents for US$ 35,000 was disrupted in Puerto Madero
Russians in Argentina: the reason behind the phenomenon whereby women pay to give birth in Argentina
A Russian citizen was detained in Ezeiza: why did he have an Interpol alert and what was he coming to Argentina to do?
