“It was crazy, there were at least eight pregnant Russian women waiting in front of me,” Polina Čerepovická told The Guardian after visiting the Sanatorio Finochietto outpatient clinic in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The woman who makes a living by making a jewelery today once lived in Moscow, and the familiar voice of Russian did not escape her.

Polina and her husband left Russia shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine and have been parents since last December. However, they do not return to their hometowns and plan to stay in Buenos Aires. Officials there want to apply for citizenship, which is an easier process than it seems due to the fact that their daughter is now Argentinian.

“I learned that I was pregnant shortly after the start of the war,” she told Russian journalists. “When we saw that the borders around us were closing fast, we knew we had to find a place where we could travel easily. An Argentine passport will open many doors for my child.”

The concept of “birth tourism” is not new; however, due to Moscow’s isolation from the West, Argentina has become a popular destination for families wishing to grant their children second citizenship privileges. Russians do not need a visa to visit Argentina, and extending their normal 90-day stay is relatively easy – as is applying for a residence permit.

In addition, one of the most important advantages of the Argentine passport is that passport holders can travel to 171 countries, including the EU or the United Kingdom, for short periods without a visa.

According to Florencia Carignan, head of the Argentine immigration office, in the past year alone, about 10,500 pregnant Russian women have arrived in the country, of which 5,800 have arrived in the last three months. Also, many declared that they were 33 or 34 weeks pregnant, that is, just a few weeks before their due date.

However, about seven thousand of the total number of these women did not stay in the country after giving birth, and their footsteps headed home. They then left the application for Argentine citizenship for the child – and later for the parents – to Argentine lawyers.

“The problem is they come and have children, they leave Argentina and they never come back,” Carignan said in an interview with Telenueve television channel on Friday. “We cannot allow them to openly lie to us even though they are not tourists,” he said.

The director of the immigration office described the situation after 33 expectant mothers arrived in Argentina on the same plane on Thursday. Two of the women were supposed to be detained at the airport, and the lawyer for one of them has already stated that his client is a 32-week pregnant Russian fleeing the war.

Among other things, the increase in Russian mothers was noticed by Argentine hospitals, which are preparing for the phenomenon to gain momentum in 2023. “At least two people come in a day,” the receptionist of one of the clinics there told the Argentine newspaper La Nacion. Also, according to her, women come with interpreters who are “still the same.”

According to Carignan, a criminal investigation has been launched into what he describes as a lucrative business that promises Russian mothers Argentine passports. There are agencies that help expectant mothers organize an entire trip to a culturally and geographically distant country.

“There is interest in Buenos Aires, the only destination we are currently cooperating with,” Eva Pekurová, head of the agency that provides travel documents, accommodation and hospital stays for Russians born abroad, told The Guardian.

Like many other companies in the industry, his company previously offered similar tours to the popular Miami, Florida. But its business model collapsed when the covid-19 outbreak broke out and the US closed its borders. Russians’ journeys to the country were further complicated by the war in Ukraine.

But similar services are offered by Kirill Makoveyev, the founder of the RuArgentina agency, which has helped more than 100 Russian women and their partners last year. According to information received from La Nacion, his business was born after he moved to Argentina years ago, and he began receiving inquiries about his travels, revealing his keen interest in medical tourism.

“The state of medicine in Russia is in the 19th century. They offer you unapproved drugs that are not available anywhere else in the world,” Makoveyev told the newspaper. According to her, the healthcare system in Argentina is excellent, which is one of the reasons why pregnant women with money choose this country.

He also documented the increasing interest in maternity tourism with statistics on the number of visitors to his site. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it was about 100,000 a year, but last year that number has quadrupled.

Thanks to women who come to Argentina to give birth, intermediaries can earn up to 215,000 kronor. The money covers services provided, which include providing interpreters and helping with paperwork, as well as taking pictures with the newborn.

For example, there is a Russian chat group on the Telegram platform. Giving Birth in ArgentinaIt has more than 5 thousand members. In it they exchange experiences, tips on the best maternity hospitals in Buenos Aires and communicate for interpreters and nannies.