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12th August 2023
08:40am BST
A British mum-to-be who flew 4,000 miles across the world to give birth on a beach is now "stranded" off the coast of Grenada with her four month old baby.
Iuliia Gurzhii, 38, and husband, Clive, 51, "feel like prisoners" after getting stuck unable to register her newborn's birth or apply for a passport.
The couple left Manchester, and were travelling to Rodney Bay, St Lucia, so Iuliia could fulfil her dream of the most "natural" birth on a beach there.
But her waters broke at sea - and baby Louisa was born on April 23, 2023.
And ever since, they have been in a battle against bureaucracy to get her home.
As if that weren't terrible enough, they left daughter Elizabeth, eight, back at home in the UK because they couldn't renew her passport.
They were told by a hospital in Grenada that their daughter's birth couldn't be registered because she was more than 24 hours old.
Then an immigration official said they needed proof the baby was theirs, before a passport office said they couldn't help because the couple had no proof of where Louisa was born.
Now they claim the UK High Commission said they needed a DNA test - which they are still waiting to get the results for.
Feeling "stranded and abandoned" and running out of money, the pair say they don't know how they will get back to the UK.
Clive, a sports coach, from Tameside, Manchester, said: "We have been passed around different agencies and nobody will help us.
"We are running out of money. We will soon run out of food, and nobody is helping us.
"We are essentially stateless - we are more than abandoned. We are prisoners in a country that we are not allowed to leave."
Last month, Clive went to the UK High Commission in Grenada and took a DNA test to prove that the baby was theirs but are still waiting for the results, they say.
The hope is when the DNA test results come back, the couple will be allowed to leave with a passport for the baby and return to the UK.
Iuliia said she is "traumatised" and having sleepless nights due to the stress of not being able to go home to her daughter, who is being looked after by her auntie, Kristina, 24.
Iuliia, a yoga teacher, said: "I can't sleep at night. It is traumatising.
"I am scared of the night it is hurricane season we have storms now - it is traumatising for us all.
"I can't stop crying, we are begging for help - we have been abandoned."
Clive said: "We don't have enough money for flights. When we came over here, they were £600 each and now they are a few grand.
"I am £6,000 in debt on the card. We are running out of money.
"We keep being called by the Foreign Office and they ask us if we have an update for them.
"They should be the ones helping us get out of here."
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We have offered consular support to a British family in St Lucia.”
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