We have been speaking to the media about what help we need from the UK government to support British parents with or expecting babies through surrogacy in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion .
The Times (6 March 2022) writes: Desperate British families are asking the home secretary to allow Ukrainian surrogate mothers carrying their unborn babies to travel to the UK, amid fears that they could be killed in the war zone. Their lawyers have written to Priti Patel, begging for help. Read more
In The Guardian (10 March 2022): Natalie Gamble, a British fertility lawyer, is helping 23 British couples, with surrogates ranging from eight to 39 weeks pregnant, get across the border. “In every case, parents are worried about whether surrogates will be able to access medical care and give birth safely, and what will happen if the couples can’t get there when they do,” she says. “Will the babies be left in a war zone with no one to look after them?” Read more
Stylist magazine (11 March 2022) says: In response, a number of campaigners have written to the Home Office to ask them to make a “special provision” for the surrogates, and their own immediate families, to be allowed to come to the UK via the Ukraine family scheme. Lawyer Natalie Gamble of NGA Law, a firm specialising in fertility law which is currently representing 24 British parents of unborn surrogate babies in Ukraine, told the Times: “These are women doing a life-changing thing for British citizen parents. And the parents feel that they are part of their families and they want to take care of them. “I think to include them on the family visas is a really small thing at a really difficult time. This is a very unique class of people who absolutely deserve special protection.” Read more
On 15 March 2022 (following the Home Secretary’s announcement that visas would be issued for pregnant surrogates), The Big Issue wrote: Priti Patel has authorised three year special visas to be granted allowing Ukrainian surrogates and their immediate families to come to the UK. The UK’s first fertility law firm, NGA Law, and its founder Natalie Gamble worked with leading immigration lawyer Barry O’Leary to campaign on the issue and the move gives Ukrainian surrogates the option to enter the UK if they wish. Read more
And Natalie was interviewed on the main ITV evening news, as well as on BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
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