• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
British Couple Stuck In Ukraine Waiting For Surrogate Baby’s Documents

Home> News

Published 16:06 12 Feb 2022 GMT

British Couple Stuck In Ukraine Waiting For Surrogate Baby’s Documents

The Foreign office has told all Brits to leave the country and return home

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A British couple are stuck in Ukraine while they wait for their surrogate-born baby’s travel documents. 

The UK Government has told Brits to leave Ukraine immediately amid growing concerns that Russia is set to invade. 

Ben Garratt, 40, and his wife Alice, live in London, but moved out to Kyiv in December, where their son was born.

The couple arranged for Raphael to be born in Ukraine to take advantage of the country's laws which allow a swifter IVF and surrogacy process.

Advert

Garratt, who works for London North Eastern Railway, said he and his wife are growing increasingly worried after the Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening (11 February) to encourage UK nationals to leave.

PA

He told the PA news agency: “It does add to our worry, we’re thinking about basic things that we need to do to make sure that we’re ready to leave as soon as possible.

“If we take the advice at face value, it means the UK and also the US government are worried that Russian action is imminent – that makes us want to get out.”

The couple, who were originally waiting for a British passport for Raphael, are now trying to secure an emergency travel document.

Advert

“We’re essentially stuck in Ukraine until we can get the required British paperwork to allow our son born here to leave,” Garratt said.

“When we first arrived, that means getting him a British passport but given the current situation, it means getting him an emergency travel document.

“It’s getting frustrating because we’re being told by the UK Government to leave the country… and we still don’t have the document we need.”

Garratt is due to have an interview at the passport office next week to provide proof of his son’s British citizenship.

“They want to do a two-hour phone interview with me, but that’s not until Wednesday,” he said.

Advert

PA

“It is bizarre, but I think it’s based around the normal assumption that the people applying for an emergency travel document, perhaps, are already definitely British and maybe they’ve just lost their passport somewhere, as opposed to being a newborn baby who needs to go through that process.”

Despite the anxiety surrounding their son’s travel documents, the couple maintain life in Kyiv remains 'normal'.

“All we know, just what we see from taking Rafi for a walk every day, everything seems normal,” Mr Garratt said.

“There’s tourists outside the churches and cathedrals taking photos – it’s feels very normal out there.

Advert

“But I don’t know what abnormal in a big city like this would feel like.”

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Lamborghini driver shamed for parking in disabled bay responds in the most British way
  • 'Smoking couple' on TUI plane turn airport into 'warzone' as Brits stranded for 17 hours and flight abandoned
  • British child, six, arrested as '14kg of drugs found in case' after landing at airport
  • British couple detained in Iran while on round-the-world motorbike trip in 'distressing situation', family says

Choose your content:

12 hours ago
13 hours ago
  • 12 hours ago

    Everything we know about Texas floods that have killed at least 121 as Trump arrives at disaster site

    The President and the First Lady have headed to the state one week after the horror floods wreaked havoc

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Scientists make surprising discovery at what lies under Antarctic ice sheet after its been covered in ice for 34 million years

    It could help scientists predict the future of the ice sheet

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Paedophile to be surgically castrated after raping girl, 6, in nation's shock new punishment tactic

    It comes a year after a law was passed in Madagascar permitting the controversial punishment

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Scientists think they've worked out what unknown interstellar object in our solar system is

    It came from outside our own solar system

    News