The Israeli Ministry of Justice banned Israeli citizens from engaging in surrogacy procedures in the occupied territories of Cyprus, warning them of sanctions, according to a statement issued on Thursday. The statement includes a similar ban on carrying out the same procedure in Albania and Kenya. Specifically, the Unit for Combating Human Trafficking, Prostitution and Polygamy, which is part of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, said in today’s statement that the ban was imposed “because there are valid indications that in these areas, surrogate mothers are subjected to sexual exploitation and prostitution both before and during pregnancy.” In particular, the Israeli Ministry of Justice, referring to the surrogacy procedure “which takes place in this particular area of Cyprus”, said that there are “legislative loopholes as to the legality of the procedure, which endanger the individual rights and human dignity of surrogate mothers.” “On the basis of the information received by the competent Israeli authorities and following an investigation, it was established that, in addition to the conditions of ill-treatment of surrogate mothers, there is an inherent difficulty in verifying the genetic material between the child, the surrogate mother and the future parents, which will prevent not only the registration of the child in the Israeli registry and the acquisition of Israeli citizenship, but also the entry of the newborn into Israeli territory,” adds the statement. As stated in a related report by the Israeli state television, citing information available to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, there are reasonable indications that criminal organisations are involved in surrogacy procedures in the occupied areas of Cyprus, as well as in Albania and Kenya, which keep foreign women isolated and against their will from their families, and exploit them both as prostitutes and as surrogate mothers in exchange for substantial amounts of money. The coordinator of the Unit for Combating Trafficking, Prostitution and Polygamy with the Israeli Ministry of Justice, attorney Dina Dominitz, told the Israeli state channel that “the reason that made it necessary to ban the surrogacy procedure in the two countries, Albania and Kenya, and in the specific region of Cyprus (i.e. in the Turkish-occupied areas) is based on the need to prevent any harm to those involved in any way in this complicated and yet sensitive process of surrogacy, surrogate mothers, parents-to-be and of course babies born under conditions of dubious legality.’ “This ban is intended to protect Israeli citizens from the very serious legal complications they will face. It also derives from Israel’s commitment to international legality to fight international crime, and in particular trafficking, within the framework of international legal assistance and existing international conventions,” Dominitz concluded. According to information obtained by CNA, in the last five years at least three private companies have been operating in Israel, which have been placing paid advertisements on various social media networks in Hebrew, urging Israeli couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, to undergo the surrogacy procedure in the pseudostate Turkey set up in the occupied areas of Cyprus, stressing that the bureaucratic procedures there are shorter and at a lower cost than the procedures and expenses required for the same procedure in the United States, a particularly popular country for this purpose, especially for Israeli LGBT+ community members. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third.
Source: Cyprus News Agency