A couple's dream to give birth on St Lucia became a nightmare, after the hospital and registry office said they had no proof of the newborn's birth history. Photo / 123rf
A couple's dream to give birth on St Lucia became a nightmare, after the hospital and registry office said they had no proof of the newborn's birth history. Photo / 123rf
A couple who flew 6000km to fulfil their dream of the perfect birth on a Caribbean beach have been left in limbo, unable to apply for a passport for their now 4-month-old baby.
Iuliia Gurzhii, 38, and husband Clive, 51, described feeling like “prisoners” in paradise after being unable to register the citizenship of their newborn.
Gurzhii, from Manchester, England, said they had planned to travel to Rodney Bay on St Lucia to fulfil their dream of a beachside birth. The white sand beaches of Pigeon Island are among the Caribbean nation’s most scenic.
However, Gurzhii said that after her waters broke on the boat while travelling to St Lucia, her daughter Louisa was born at sea early on April 23.
Ever since, the couple have been struggling to get their baby home.
“I can’t sleep at night. It is traumatising. I am scared of the night,” the UK yoga teacher told The Sunday Times.
“It is hurricane season, we have storms now — it is traumatising for us all. I can’t stop crying, we are begging for help — we have been abandoned.”
Presenting their daughter to a hospital, they could not register the birth because the baby was over 24 hours old. Immigration officials told the couple that they had no proof it was theirs and no witness. Without proof of where the child was born, they could not apply for a passport for their daughter.
Pigeon Island at the north of St Lucia is a popular white sand beach near Rodney Bay. Photo / Belinda Fewings, Unsplash
Iuliia, who has an elder daughter Elizabeth, 8, has been unable to see her for months. Elizabeth was left in the care of an aunt in Manchester after she was unable to get her passport renewed.
Husband Clive, a sports coach, said that they felt “stranded and abandoned”.
They are still waiting for the results of a DNA test to claim parentage with the UK High Commission, so Louise can be deemed a UK citizen through birth.
“We are essentially stateless — we are more than abandoned. We are prisoners in a country that we are not allowed to leave.”
The couple said they had incurred debts of £6000 (NZ$12,900) and were unable to buy flights home.
The couple left the UK in March 2023, while Iuliia was 35 weeks’ pregnant.
Flying to Martinique they took a sailboat to St Lucia, but Louise was born en route to the island.
The couple say it took weeks to hear back after filling in forms for a birth certificate at the local registry office.
As there were no witnesses and Louise was not born in a hospital, the application was rejected, as was an application for an emergency travel document from the UK Foreign Office, as they could not prove Louise was their child.
Ahead of cyclone season, the family were forced to move the boat to safety in Grenada, on June 20, where they have been waiting for the result of a DNA test.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson did not comment on the particulars but told the Manchester Evening News they “have offered consular support to a British family in St Lucia”.
