Irish families with surrogate babies begin to leave Ukraine

Irish couples and their babies born by surrogacy in Ukraine are beginning to travel home under arrangements put in place by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Campaign group Irish Families Through Surrogacy thanked the department and Government officials for the “intensive work” done to ensure the safety of a number of Irish families leaving Ukraine with their newborn babies.

“The news that the exit process home for these families has been expedited is extremely welcome and we wish the families a safe journey home to Ireland,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

“Our thoughts are with the amazing women, all our surrogate mothers, and their families at this time of great tension and anguish in Ukraine.”

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Fine Gael Senator Mary Seery Kearney, who has been liaising the department and working with the affected Irish couples, said Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney had confirmed a number of the families were on their way to Ireland.

“I understand the Department of Foreign Affairs has issued emergency travel documentation for children born through a surrogacy arrangement to Irish parents. My colleague, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, has confirmed this afternoon that the families involved are safe and that a number of them are currently on their way home.”

Ukraine is a popular country for Irish couples seeking a child by surrogacy through private clinics. About a dozen babies are due to be born by surrogacy in the period to May. The process of registering the birth of the child can normally take up to four weeks. However, in response to fears over escalating military tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the department put in place temporary arrangements so parents would not have to travel to the Irish Embassy in the capital Kyiv to collect the children’s travel documents.

Ms Seery Kearney said “truly incredible” work had gone into ensuring the safe return of the families.

“I am extremely grateful for the extraordinary effort that has gone into facilitating this, while still ensuring we have a legally robust process,” she said. “I have been liaising with the department and also with families expecting babies via surrogacy in Ukraine for several weeks. I know that this has been an extremely worrying time for them given the ever-evolving situation and travel advice urging Irish citizens to leave due to escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.”

She said her thoughts were with families expecting a baby in the coming weeks. “No less effort will be put in to ensure the speedy return home to Ireland with their precious little ones.”

A spokesman for the department said it “remains in direct contact with the families concerned – providing support and advice to each of them relevant to their particular situation”.

It was continuing to work “intensively to facilitate the early departure of children born through a surrogacy arrangement in Ukraine, in light of the current worrying security situation in the country”, he said.