Federal judge Luis Armella authorized on Friday night the provisional entry into the country of the four pregnant Russian women who filed writs of habeas corpus, according to judicial sources.
The magistrate maintained that “what Migrations did was correct insofar as to enter to settle in the country you have to go through the corresponding procedures and not declare entry as a tourist,” the informants indicated.
The admission was decided, however, “given the state of advanced pregnancy, and for humanitarian reasons,” the sources indicated.
These are foreign women, migrants and pregnant women, so they ddenying them access could constitute a case of discriminationwas the criterion adopted by the Prosecutor’s Office, indicated the sources consulted.
“Fake Tourist”
On Friday afternoon, the national director of Migrations, Florencia Carignano, assured that the inadmissibility of the six pregnant Russian citizens to enter the country responds to the usual administrative procedure to resolve suspected cases of lying and being “false tourists.”
In this context, the national official warned that the arrival of these women in the country occurred while in Argentina a judicial investigation is carried out on “criminal” gangswhich is processed in the federal jurisdiction of Buenos Aires.
That file, as Télam was able to find out, is in the hands of federal judge María Servini and prosecutor Federico Delgado, and is in full process and with ongoing evidence measures.
According to the official, There are six Russian citizens who are “inadmissible” to enter to the country, who came alone, “all in the 33rd or 34th week of pregnancy, and all said they came to do tourism”.
“When we see that they do not have a return ticket, that they do not know how to explain where they are going to do tourism, something that is rare for a 34-week pregnant woman, we begin to suspect that they do not come to do tourism,” he said.
The immigration authorities must be governed by “a procedure for resolving cases in the event of a well-founded suspicion of a false tourist,” as it works “in all countries,” Carignano said in dialogue with the TN channel.
“In this case it was detected that it was false tourism, because they themselves admitted that they come to have their children” in Argentina, he added.
“In this case it was detected that it was false tourism, because they themselves admitted that they come to have their children”Florence Carignano
In this regard, the official explained that “it is not a crime” to come to the country to have a child, but people “of non-Mercosur nationality” must “go to the consulate and get a visa and explain the reasons” in order to do so. And the Russian citizens inadmissible between yesterday and today did not present such required papers.
The official stated that the authorities are “concerned about his health” and ordered a “medical control every three hours” for necessary checks.
The women “are not detained, they are free and in charge of the airlines with which they arrived, which offered them to return to their country and they did not want to,” said the director of Migrations, and warned about the presence of “lawyers who are part of gangs that are being investigated in Comodoro Py”, in the federal courts.
“There is a judicial investigation that is behind these gangs that bring women and men, and behind it there is a million-dollar business,” he confirmed.
“There is a judicial investigation that is behind these gangs that bring women and men, and behind it there is a million-dollar business”Florence Carignano
According to the official, since last August there has been an increase in the flow of Russian citizens in the country and, particularly, of Russian citizens with advanced pregnancies.
“The number is really large per day. On Thursday night, on the last Ethiopian (airline) flight, 33 Russian citizens with 32-33 weeks of pregnancy entered,” he said.
After suspecting that it was a crime of trafficking, the authorities conducted a total of “365 interviews” with Russian citizens, all of them “with high purchasing power”, who arrived in the country alone and they said “that they had come through agencies that offered them a whole package”.
“They all come just in week 33, there is a pattern of conduct that the Justice is investigating and for which Migrations provided information,” said Carignano and clarified that many “came with tickets or rentals,” unlike the women who are stranded in Ezeiza.
To contextualize, the director explained that in the last year 10,500 people of Russian nationality entered the country, among them “5,819 pregnant women”, and of those 10,500, 7,000 “are no longer in the country, and that is the problem”.
“We are delighted that they come to live in Argentina, but the problem is that they arrive, have children, write them down as Argentines, leave a power of attorney to their parents, leave and never come back.. There are people here who are using our passport,” she said.
In this regard, the official warned that the problem is that this affects the Argentine passport, which is “very secure” and therefore they can enter 171 countries without a visa or “get the United States visa for 10 years.”
“If we don’t control who we give the passports to, the Argentine passport will no longer have the confidence it has today in other countries. We have to take care of our passport and the benefits we have achieved because we have been working to make our passport safe,” he concluded.
“We are delighted that they come to make their lives in Argentina, but the problem is that they arrive, have children, write them down as Argentines, leave a power of attorney, leave and never come back. There are people here who are using our passport”Florence Carignano
Already in the last days of the year 2022, the British newspaper The Guardian published a note entitled “Everyone is looking for options: Russian women fly to Argentina to give birth”, which narrates that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the country has experienced a boom in “birth tourism” from Russia.
In the publication, they cite Georgy Polin, head of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Argentina, who estimated that between 2,000 and 2,500 Russian women moved to Argentina in 2022, many of them planning to give birth in the country, and He predicted that this year “that number could grow to 10,000.”
In The Guardian they highlighted that Russian women chose Argentina for the advantages of their passport, “which allows them to visit 171 countries without a visa, including (those of) the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan”, and for the high quality of their health care, both public and private.
