A couple used a surrogate to have a baby then abandoned her in another country 1,500 miles away.
The parents travelled to Ukraine in August 2020 after their baby was born to a surrogate mother.
But for reasons unknown, the pair returned to their home country of Italy shortly after and left the new born behind, in the care of her nanny.
While they promised to return they never came back to get her and so the little girl, now 16 months old, was cared for by the nanny who raised her as her own daughter.
Realising the parents might not return and worried about the legal repercussions, the nanny contacted the Italian consulate to report that she could no longer afford to raise the child.
Italian authorities at the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office were able to track down the parents and confirm that the couple did not intend to take their daughter back.
Now, a court has determined that the little girl should be put up for adoption, leaving the nanny devastated that she will have to give her up.
Ukraine is among a handful of countries in which surrogacy is commercial and legal and the country offers a systematic and large-scale provision of surrogate services to the world.
A shocking video last year showed almost 50 surrogate babies crammed in a dormitory at a hotel in Kiev as the lockdown stopped their parents from collecting them.
The parents from the UK, USA, Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Germany, China, Mexico, Romania and other countries had paid between £5,745 and £57,365 for services from an organisation that assisted them with starting families.
But due to the pandemic causing countries to close their borders, the baby were being cared for by staff at a so-called ‘baby factory’.
Last week, the Service for International Police Cooperation (SCIP) coordinated with the Italian Consulate in the Ukrainian capital to organise for the baby to be taken to Italy and put up for adoption.
A team that consisted of officials from the Italian Red Cross, including a paediatrician and volunteer nurse, travelled to Ukraine to fly the girl to Italy.
The child was flown to Malpensa, on November 11 where she is currently being cared for by a foster family while the adoption process is underway.
Carolina Casini, a volunteer pediatrician of the Italian Red Cross, told the court that the baby had slept for the entire duration of the trip in her arms.
Although the team had been afraid of finding her in poor condition and emotionally deprived, they found that the little girl was in “good condition” and that “the nanny who looked after her until yesterday loved her very much and took great care of her.”
The nanny was reported to have been heartbroken by the news and handed over pictures for the girl’s new parents so she will see them when she is grown up.
The last recommendation from the nanny to the inspector who took the child back to Italy was: “She’ll eat the banana, give her a whole one.”
It is unclear whether the surrogate parents will face prosecution for allegedly abandoning their baby daughter in Ukraine.