Suspicion of human trafficking: Italian couple and surrogate mother with child arrested in Ezeiza

1. Parents, according to the law

On Friday, 25 October 2024, a few minutes before midnight, an Air France flight was preparing to depart for Paris when law enforcement officers detained two men and a woman with a 15-day-old baby. A criminal case has been opened against the detainees and they have been banned from leaving the country.

According to the circumstances clarified, the newborn baby girl was born as a result of a surrogacy programme and is the child of one of the detained men, an oncologist from Padua. It was planned that she would live and be brought up in Italy, in the family of the man and his partner. 

The investigation found that the detained woman did not participate in the surrogacy programme on altruistic grounds, but had an extreme interest in the fee. The 28-year-old woman, according to an official familiar with the case, is in a very vulnerable economic situation: unemployed, not finished school and raising a young daughter alone. 

Investigative authorities in Argentina are investigating other cases of surrogacy that may mask human trafficking. The case is the first in which the alleged parents were detained before taking the child abroad.

On Wednesday, 23 October 2024, a bizarre case occurred at the migration office. A woman accompanied by a man stated that she wanted to allow him to travel alone with their child. According to evidence from sources in the case, migration officers noticed that the mother was holding herself aloof towards the child and there was a noticeable discrepancy between her and the man who introduced himself as her partner.

The couple left the migration office without completing the procedure, and the next day attempted to complete it in Ezeiza with a booked flight to Paris. Everything was in order with the documents and the couple were listed as the parents of the child, but there were a number of details that confused the migration officials. The woman lived in a settlement in Rosario and the man lived in Italy, the only time he had visited Argentina was in August 2023. It was thus clear that the possibility of the couple conceiving a child naturally had been ruled out and that assisted reproductive technologies had been used. 

The Migration Service filed a complaint with the Federal Court No. 1 in Lomas de Samora, in whose jurisdiction the airport is located. Judge Federico Villena referred the case to prosecutor Sergio Mola, whose decision led to the initiation of criminal proceedings for 3 alleged offences: human trafficking, sale of children or appropriation of minors. It is noted that the couple, officially being the parents of the girl, could have freely issued a notary's permission for the man to travel abroad with the child.

However, the participants of the case chose a different way: they planned to fly the four of them to Europe. According to court sources, they bought tickets for a midday Air Europa flight, but later decided to travel on an Air France plane that departs around midnight on Fridays.

At that point, the judge ruled that all those involved in the reproductive programme, along with the child, should be banned from leaving the country. The group was detained in the boarding area of the plane.

The criminal case is at an early stage of investigation and, according to one person investigating the case, at this point investigators have an understanding that the alleged victim in this case is a newborn baby girl, and the ‘middlemen’ who hired the woman to carry the Italian couple's child should be thoroughly investigated. After receiving payment, they paid the surrogate (expected to be about a tenth of what they received from the intended parents), carried out examinations and performed the embryo transfer in Rosario, entered into a one-year prepaid medical care contract with Swiss Medical and, shortly before the surrogate's delivery, rented a flat in Recoleta for her. The baby girl was born on 10 October at Swiss Argentina Clinic and Maternity Hospital.

According to an official involved in the investigation of the case, the issue of surrogacy is not regulated by law. The case is complex, all the circumstances surrounding it are being scrutinised. 

It is noted that it is still unclear under which crime this case falls and who is guilty, although the investigation is inclined to accuse the organisers of the business, commercialising the process and making super profits, taking advantage of the vulnerable position of surrogate mothers and the need for a child of the intended parents.

Based on the above, the unforgettable ‘if there is a person, there will be an article’ comes to mind. Businesses that do not violate any provision of the law are trying to be accused of making money. It is really not clear under which offence this could fall.

In the last six months, cases that are confusingly similar to this one have been filed in various parts of Argentina. The biggest is a case being investigated under the direction of prosecutor Alejandra Mangano, head of the Attorney General's Office's Office to Combat Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons (Protex), which is under the jurisdiction of federal judge Maria Eugenia Capuchetti, in the courts of Comodoro Py. More than 100 cases of alleged human trafficking are currently under investigation.

In July 2023, nine people accused of hiring vulnerable women for surrogacy were summoned for questioning in Cordoba. Those summoned include the owners of two reproductive clinics that offered services to those wishing to become parents, lawyers who were involved in ‘concealing the situation of the victims and the economic aspect of the agreement presented in court’, and psychologists who tested the suitability of the women hired for the procedures. The case is being prosecuted on 14 counts. Prosecutors Enrique Senestari and Carlos Gonella are involved in the case, supported by Mangano. The judge is Alejandro Sanchez Freites, who issued a general restraining order on the assets of the defendants.

Parents, according to the law

In the second half of October, the Supreme Court ruled that children born through surrogacy are the children of the woman who gave birth to the child and the person who wanted to become a parent and gave ‘prior, informed and free consent,’ ‘regardless of who provided the gametes.’ In the case under investigation, according to the civil registry book, it is the surrogate mother and one of the detained Italian nationals. 

The court recalled that according to the law, a child cannot have more than two parents. It also recognised that surrogacy, which is not prohibited, creates a complex situation that is not regulated by the law because the Code deals too generically with the issue of parentage in cases of assisted reproductive technology. The judgement has been sent to Congress for possible legislative action in the area of assisted human reproduction.

Different countries regulate surrogacy differently: for example Ukraine, Israel and some US states (California, Florida, New York) allow and regulate the practice, Uruguay and Brazil allow it with financial restrictions or allow only non-commercial. Germany, Switzerland and Italy, which passed a new law making surrogacy a ‘universal offence’ punishable by imprisonment and an impressive fine, prohibit surrogacy. The new law, passed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, also includes jail time and a fine of up to a million euros for Italian couples who resort to surrogacy to have a child abroad.

Again, we urge you to note how artificially inflated the case is. In a seemingly democratic country, in the absence of prohibitive laws and any regulation (!!!), people have been created a huge problem. Is a similar situation conceivable in the US or Canada? Even taking into account that in these countries surrogacy is not legal in all states.

Such stories once again convince us that for the sake of our own good it is worth working with proven destinations, in countries where surrogacy is 100% legal and the law enforcement practice in this area is established and fully developed. We urge prospective parents to choose countries proven by time and practice for surrogacy.