I have no words - woman now stranded after wanting to give birth in St Lucia (on the beach...)

[Nanny0gg]

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/uk-world-news/new-mum-stranded-after-being-8669669

What on earth were they thinking??

Surely, at the very least, if you planned to give birth in another country you would make yourself aware of rules regarding registering the birth beforehand!? They must have known the baby would need to be registered within 24 hours, surely you would at least google the rules and regulations! I think I would even if I were travelling abroad at 20 weeks pregnant? The mind boggles!

They couldn't even get their shit together sorting out their daughter's passport in the UK.....

They sound like a pair of bloody morons! No doubt they have or will set up a go fund me and also expect the government to pay to get them out the mess they put themselves in! The only sympathy I have is for the baby and the 8 year old back at home.

Let alone this new baby, born stateless, out in the high seas and brought in too late to the hospital to get a birth certificate.

God help those kids.

Absolute idiots.

I gave birth abroad.

I was British citizen and my DP was also British although had residency in the country. (Had lived there since 18 months and his step dad was national of that country)

We weren't married.

We knew what we had to do to register ds birth and made sure we knew how to get me residency too. It wasn't a simple process but we made sure we understood the process and had funds for all the translated paperwork we needed and to pay for the legal documents.

When I was pregnant I was invited to wedding far away just before the due date, my sister and mother just said ‘you are not thinking of going are you?’
I wasn’t as I couldn’t risk being more than a few minutes from the hospital but there is NO WAY they would have allowed me go.

How in the name of God did her family go along with this lunacy of an idea.

@Testina your post really made me laugh.

this story is absolutely not true. It’s holy as a cheesecloth riddled by moths. It was a very good spot about the age difference between the husband, the wife and the supposed aunt. It’s just about feasible but does kind of scream child trafficking ring.

i hope Netflix are buying the rights as we speak.

Getting a British Passport when you're born abroad is no mean feat. Even if everything is totally straightforward there are lots of hoops to jump and documentation to get in order.

What with faffing between islands, no witnesses, or birth certificate, it's going to take an age for this hapless pair to get one sorted for the baby. Like it already has done.

What a mess. They're clueless.

But don't understand how she was allowed to fly at 35 weeks unless she concealed her pregnancy. There are things that don't add up but I don't understand what they had to gain by any of it.

If it was a drugs run why do it pregnant?
If it was a surrogacy where did the baby come from? Surely there's an easier way than taking a new born out to a boat in the ocean to do a handover.

Probably it's simpler, they are just complete plums.

Yes, there should be a robust process, but when they initially tried they weren’t signposted to a robust process, they were just told “can’t help”. From the article their first contact with British government was either the immigration office (unclear if this was British or St Lucian) or the passport office in St Lucia who told them they couldn’t do anything, it doesn’t sound like it was explained to them how they went about establishing what was needed until they got to Grenada.

This is assuming the story is a good representation of what happened which, as I said, I do have significant doubts about.

It wasn't born stateless, assuming the birth happened as described, because
a) it seems one or both the parents are British, therefore British by descent
b) they say born just off the coast of Rodney Bay, so likely with St Lucia's maritime waters so potentially eligible also to be St Lucian by jus solis (though refusal to register the birth might complicate that)

I see what a previous poster means about his multiple surnames… unless Iuliia/ Yuliya has made a habit of only living with 50-year-old guys called Clive. Maybe it’s a very specific fetish.

The article refers to the immigration office and the passport office in St Lucia.

And later to the High Commission in Grenada

Which suggests that the couple knew the difference between the terms High Commission and immigration/passport office, and that the St Lucian authorities did not issue a passport, even though jus solis applies, because place of birth (in St Lucian waters or not) could not be proved.

Why they waited until Grenada to approaching a High Commission isn't clear.

Unless of course the story was badly written up and one of the references to passport office or immigration office was intended to mean the High Commission consular section

For those posters saying that the British Embassy/Consulate should do more, it might help to remember that this couple are not in Britain, they are in whichever country it is they've halted in (I've lost track). The British authorities can't just high-handedly demand that the authorities of another country expedite or alter their bureaucratic processes. They can provide a permit for one journey, rather than the slower process of obtaining a passport, but the requirements of the country they are in must be fulfilled before the baby leaves as well as what the British need to supply such a permit.

The couple are getting help. They are being told what the authorities in the country they are in require them to do and what the British state requires them to do in order for the baby to be able to travel.

To return to a point discussed upthread, they aren't even eligible for a Darwin Award. That is awarded, of necessity posthumously, to someone who has provided the service to humanity of taking their genes out of the pool, ie, dying (from their stupidity) before they reproduce.

Ridiculous 🤦🏽‍♀️

I'm a bit confused. Where did the boat come from? Did they already have a boat in St Lucia or have they bought a boat or hired one? That's surely going to have cost a shedload of cash.

Like others, this sounds as if there's something more going on. He's 58 and coming up to retirement with a much younger wife: I wondered if it's something to do with gaining residency by having a child born as a citizen of the country. It all sounds dodgy and like others I seem to have mislaid my sympathy.

It wasn't born stateless, assuming the birth happened as described, because
a) it seems one or both the parents are British, therefore British by descent
b) they say born just off the coast of Rodney Bay, so likely with St Lucia's maritime waters so potentially eligible also to be St Lucian by jus solis (though refusal to register the birth might complicate that)

I meant 'stateless' as in the baby still needs proof to as to her parenthood in the first instance. It's still not been concluded. And she won't be British till then to the authorities.

And if St Lucia won't give out a Birth Certificate that nationality is not in the bag yet either.

Currently the baby can't leave because she has zero documentation. She doesn't legally belong anywhere.

The child will probably have a better life in st Lucia then the UK

Having read through all 17 pages, I am really invested in this sieve of a story.
Who is tracking the news pages for updates for us please ?

It’s also horrible to bandy the term ‘stateless’ around. There are millions of people who are truly stateless, without rights, without resources and without any bugger to help them out of their completely blameless plight. A far cry from these people’s situation.

They may have waited those three days to avoid the vitamin K injection babies get in most countries. A lot of freebirthers who had "wild pregnancy" avoiding all medical care will refuse it.

A quick google of how to register a birth in St Lucia indicates you need a form I from the hospital to confirm the birth and then register with District Registrar. There’s a warning it may take 1-3 months for birth certificate to be issued.
It sounds like couple thought hospital could issue confirmation of birth form and when hospital have said no have stumbled at first hurdle.
There seems to be a procedure where a mum can do an affidavit supported by a statutory declaration confirming birth from a dr, midwife or relative of the mum. Obviously will take a bit of time and cost of lawyer but not insurmountable. Instead they seem to have sailed off to another country?

That was me. It’s a MN thread so I casually said “drop anchor” instead of going into the specifics of heaving to and deploying yacht drogue/sea anchor in deep waters!

My point is, immediate assistance with labour may have been more important than sailing to shore - whether than meant they slowed the boat or allowed it to drift.

They may already have been not too far out and able to anchor though, if they had already stopped near St Lucia for the night. With baby born at 12:40 am, they might well have stopped for the night before labour started. Although impossible to guess at labour length 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m with you though, that I’d send a bloody message! But Clive and Iuliia are not you and me 🤣

If you’re that interested - you could do it? Looking forward to your updates 🤣

Absolutely this. They are chancers who thought they'd get a nice holiday and insta career from this. And the Foreign Office would bail them out with free flights home.

There's not a single poster who admires them for this stunt though. No one is saying how amazing it is so who is their market here? What brand wants to be associated with those two?

Who is going to donate to a crowd funder? Apart from friends and family. And I can't see too many doing that, unless they are into government conspiracy theories.

Hope this spectacularly backfires on them.