A British mother-to-be who flew 4,000 miles around the world to give birth on a beach is now ‘stranded’ with her four-month-old baby off the coast of Grenada.
Iuliia Gurzhii, 38, and husband Clive, 51, said they felt “like prisoners” as they were unable To the birth of their newborn or apply for a passport.
The couple left Tameside, Manchester, and traveled to Rodney Bay in St Lucia so Iuliia could fulfill her dream of giving birth as “naturally” as possible on a beach.
But her waters broke and she gave birth to her baby Louisa at sea on April 23.
Since then, the couple has been fighting the bureaucracy to get her home.
Iuliia Gurzhii, 38, husband, Clive, 51, and their daughter Louisa. The couple “feel like prisoners” after being unable To the birth of their newborn or apply for a passport
Iuliia Gurzhii with her baby. The couple traveled to Rodney Bay in St. Lucia so Iuliia could fulfill her dream of having a ‘most natural’ birth on a beach, but her water broke and she gave birth to baby Louisa at sea
To make matters worse, they abandoned their eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, in the UK because they were unable to renew her passport.
First, a hospital told them they could not register her birth because she was more than 24 hours old.
Then an immigration officer said they needed proof the baby was theirs, before a passport authority said they couldn’t help because the couple had no proof of where Louisa was born.
And now they claim the UK High Commission said they needed a DNA test – and they’re still waiting for the results.
The two feel “stranded and abandoned” and run out of money. They say they don’t know how to return to Britain.
Iuliia, a yoga teacher, said she has sleepless nights because of the stress of not being able to go home to her daughter, who is cared for by her aunt Kristina, 24.
She said: “It’s hurricane season, we have storms now – it’s traumatic for all of us.”
“I can’t stop crying, we’re begging for help – we’ve been abandoned.”
Clive, an athletic trainer from Tameside, said: “We’ve been put through different agencies and nobody’s going to help us.”
“We’re running out of money.” Soon we’ll run out of food and nobody will help us.
“We are essentially stateless – we are more than abandoned.” “We are prisoners in a country we are not allowed to leave.”
The couple left the UK in March when Iuliia was 35 weeks pregnant and traveled to Martinique for the first time.
They then took a boat to St. Lucia where Iuliia gave birth at sea off the coast of Rodney Bay.
Louisa was born at 12:40 am and weighed 3 kg.
A few days later, the parents visited the Owen King European Union (OKEU) Hospital in St. Lucia for a physical and To their daughter’s birth.
But they claim they were told they couldn’t because the birth didn’t happen within 24 hours.
Iuliia Gurzhii, husband, Clive and their daughter Louisa. The couple left the UK in March when Iuliia was 35 weeks pregnant
Iuliia Gurzhii, husband, Clive and their daughter Louisa at a beach resort. The new parents then contacted immigration in St. Lucia for help, claiming they had been told they needed proof that the baby was theirs
As the storm season hit St. Lucia, the couple had to get the boat to safety and anchored in Grenada on June 20
Clive said: “We went to the registry office and filled out the forms for a birth certificate.”
“We waited a couple of weeks and then the registry office came back and said there was nothing they could do as the baby wasn’t born in the hospital and nobody was watching the birth.”
The new parents then contacted immigration in St. Lucia for help, claiming they were told they needed proof that the baby was theirs.
The family contacted the passport office in Castries, St. Lucia, hoping to get an emergency passport for their baby.
However, they claim they did not receive one because they had no evidence of where Louisa was born.
When the storm hit St. Lucia, the couple had to get the boat to safety and anchored in Grenada on June 20.
Upon their arrival in Grenada, Clive and Iuliia turned to the British High Commission at St George for help.
But they claim they were told they had to do a DNA test to prove the baby was theirs.
The couple hope that once the DNA test results come in, they will be allowed to travel with a passport for the baby and return to the UK.
Clive said: “We don’t have enough money for flights.” When we came here it was £600 a piece, now it’s a couple grand.
“I have £6,000 in debt on the card.” We’re running out of money.
“We keep getting calls from the Foreign Office asking if we have an update for them.”
“They should be the ones helping us get out of here.”
An FCDO spokesman said: “We have offered consular assistance to a British family in St. Lucia.”