Argentine officials have expressed concerns about the large number of pregnant Russian women who have recently entered the country to give birth as a way to obtain an Argentine passport, claiming that 3 Russian spies recently arrested in Slovenia were citizens of the South American country.
Immigration authorities banned six pregnant Russian women from entering Argentina this week, three on Wednesday and three on Thursday, saying they had falsely claimed to be tourists, Florencia Carignano, director of the National Immigration Service, told a local news channel.
At least some of the women have begun legal procedures to enter the country, and a judge gave the go-ahead for a hearing on Friday to allow the six women to enter Argentina temporarily.
“These women, who have not committed a crime, who have not broken any of the immigration laws, are unlawfully deprived of their liberty,” Cristian Rubilar, who represents three of the six women detained at Ezeiza International Airport outside Buenos Aires, said before the judge’s decision.
Pregnant women highlighted a phenomenon that has become evident in Argentina in recent weeks.
“The number is really very large every day. Just last night on the last Ethiopian Airlines flight, 33 pregnant Russian women entered their 32, 33 and 34 weeks approximately,” Carignano said.
She added that last year, 21,757 Russian citizens entered Argentina, including about 10,500 pregnant women, and “the numbers have been increasing in the past few months.”
“In the past three months, 5,819 women about to give birth entered Argentina,” she said.
Anyone born on Argentine soil is granted citizenship immediately, and having a child born in Argentina speeds up the process of obtaining citizenship for the parents.