BUENOS AIRES (Argentina), Feb. 11 (AP) — Argentine officials have expressed concern over the large number of pregnant Russian women who have recently entered the country to give birth as a way to obtain Argentine passports, claiming that three Russians recently detained The spies in Slovenia were citizens of the South American country.
Migration authorities banned six pregnant Russian women from entering Argentina this week — three on Wednesday and three on Thursday — saying they lied Call yourself a tourist.
At least some women have initiated legal procedures to be able to enter the country.
“These women, who have committed no crime and violated no immigration laws, are being unlawfully deprived of their liberty,” said Christian Lu, one of three of the six women detained at Ezeiza International Airport outside Buenos Aires. said Christian Rubilar.
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Immigration officials want judges to give the pregnant women the green light to enter the country, saying that while they did falsely claim to be tourists, their early pregnancies superseded that question, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.
Pregnant women who spent at least one night in airport facilities put the spotlight on a phenomenon that has become apparent in Argentina in recent weeks.
“The daily numbers are really high, just last night on the last Ethiopian Airlines flight, 33 Russian citizens who were about 32, 33, 34 weeks pregnant entered the country,” Carignano said.
Last year, 21,757 Russian citizens entered Argentina, including about 10,500 pregnant women, and “the number has been increasing over the past few months,” Carignano said. “In the last three months, 5,819 women who were about to give birth entered” Argentina.
Anyone born on Argentine soil is granted immediate citizenship, and children born in the country expedite the citizenship process for their parents.
The judiciary is currently investigating whether some kind of criminal organization brought Russian women to Argentina. While authorities have not said why such rings would bring pregnant women to Argentina, some have speculated that the country has lax immigration laws and no visas for Russians, free universal health care and passports that allow visa-free entry to many countries.
“They are exploiting people, exploiting the desperation of war,” Rubilal said.
Authorities stressed that officials had no problem with Russian citizens arriving in Argentina, but wanted to make sure they did have plans to live in the country.
“We don’t have any problem with people of any nationality who want to come to live in Argentina, raise their children here, invest in Argentina. The problem is that these people come and go and never come back to Argentina, they leave with their passports ,” Carignano said.
Argentina, a country traditionally open to immigration, had raised red flags at the immigration office after three Russian spies holding Argentine passports were detained in Slovenia, Carignano said.
“These people must have come to Argentina to give birth,” she said.
In late January, Slovenian media reported that authorities had detained two suspected Russian spies, one of whom this time reported to have Argentine citizenship.
“If we don’t start controlling who we issue our passports to, Argentines will start applying for visas everywhere, and passports won’t be as trustworthy as other countries,” Carignano said, noting that Argentines have visa-free access to 171 countries. (Associated Press)
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