A mother who flew 4,000 miles to give birth on an idyllic Caribbean beach says she's being held 'prisoner' with her newborn, reports say

12.08.2023 - 13:45 / insider.com

A British couple says they're being held like "prisoners" on a Caribbean island with their four-month-old baby after unexpectedly delivering their child at sea, reports say.

Iuliia Gurzhii traveled from Greater Manchester, UK, with her husband Clive, in March to give birth on a beach at Rodney Bay, St Lucia, a Caribbean island. But Gurzhii's waters broke while the couple was on a boat journey to the island, and she gave birth to a baby girl before reaching land in April, outlets reported.

"It was perfect. It was loving in the moment. She was able to connect with the universe. The sea gives off a frequency which is a natural painkiller. It was so much less painful for her," husband Clive said, reported The Sun.

But events that followed have turned their joy of the birthing experience into a legal nightmare.

They claim they have been trapped in Grenada since June after authorities in St Lucia said they could not register their child's birth for almost two months, according to The Sun and several subsequent news reports.

The couple said they are waiting for the results of a DNA test after they were told by the UK High Commission to prove the baby is theirs, they claim. The couple are separated from their eight-year-old daughter, who remains at home in the UK with family.

Yoga teacher Iuliia Gurzhii said the experience was "traumatizing," and her fears of hurricanes hitting the island had left her unable to sleep.

"I can't stop crying. We are begging for help — we have been abandoned," she said, per The Times. "We are essentially stateless — we are more than abandoned. We are prisoners in a country that we are not allowed to leave." 

Her husband, sports coach Clive Gurzhii said they had been "passed around different agencies," but that no one would help. He said the experience had left them with credit card debts of £6,000, or about $7,600.

"We will soon run out of food, and nobody is helping us," he said, per The Times.

The couple said they visited Owen King European Union Hospital in St Lucia several days after the birth, where hospital staff told them they could not register their child's birth because it had been more than 24 hours since she was born, reports say.

Clive Gurzhii said they visited the immigration office in St Lucia only to be told they needed to prove the baby was theirs. He claimed passport officials declined their request for an emergency passport for the baby because the couple had no proof of where she was born. 

After arriving in Grenada, the couple sought assistance at the UK High Commission in St George who said the couple will only be allowed to leave with a passport for the baby and return to the UK when a DNA test results confirms they are the parents.