War in Ukraine 'boosts black market for babies'

Ukraine was once the epicentre of the billion-pound surrogacy business.

- Tony Whitfield

The Russian invasion has disrupted Ukraine’s legal surrogacy business, allowing unscrupulous operators around the world to fill the void, a shocking new documentary reveals.

But award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller has discovered that with demand still high, other countries have stepped in. The business is now growing in Kenya – where it is legal but unregulated – with vulnerable African women in poverty being exploited to become surrogates.

The war has also affected Ukrainian surrogate mothers who have fled to neighbouring countries like Poland where surrogacy remains illegal.

They must return to the war zone to give birth, otherwise, the child will be taken into care and they will be prosecuted.

Mariana’s new series of Trafficked exposes the global black markets in body organs, guns and drugs.