EUROPE’S booming surrogacy industry is hiding a sinister black market where women are shipped across countries for egg harvesting and abandoned in dingy hotels.
Recruited on social media, a lack of regulation is fuelling warped “baby farms” and a “monstrous trade” where women desperate for cash are enticed into sham contracts and left with nothing but scars.
A Georgian surrogacy agency called Kinderly abandoned dozens of mothers in a run down hotel
Babies waiting to be picked up by new parents at Kinderly
The global surrogacy market, set to rise from $22billion (£14billion) to $129billion (£95billion) by 2032, is classified as human trafficking by the European Parliament.
But it is currently legal for Brits to have babies through international surrogacy – with a parental order.
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Lawyer Nino Andriashvili has represented numerous victims of surrogacy abuse in Georgia.
She told The Jattvibe: “One of the most important issues is the significant imbalance of power between surrogate mothers and the agencies.
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“Surrogate mothers can be in a particularly vulnerable position.
“The existence of a contract does not mean a woman’s rights are protected.”
In one particularly alarming case, Nino represented victims of a Georgian surrogacy agency called Kinderly.
Women from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Russia were recruited via social media.
The global surrogacy market is projected to rise from $22billion (£14billion) to $129bn by 2032 Credit: SDI Productions
There is a ‘significant imbalance of power’ between surrogate mothers and the agencies, experts say Credit: AFP via Getty Images
Many in need of money were attracted by adverts promising up to $30,000 (£22,000) to work as surrogates.
One victim, whose identity is protected, signed up to be a surrogate to support her two children after her marriage collapsed and she lost her job.
“This became the push to go,” she told the Fuller Project.
She flew her four-year-old daughter from Kyrgyzstan to Georgia on February 14, 2024.
After signing a contract with Kinderly, the mum-of-two became pregnant with twins.
Surrogate pregnancies are three times more dangerous for both the mother and baby due to the body’s altered immune response to a genetically unrelated embryo.
They face higher risks of complications including severe bleeding after childbirth, high blood pressure and signs of organ failure.
The 30-year-old soon fell ill – suspecting she had developed gestational diabetes.
No blood test was ever performed by the agency to confirm the cause of her illness.
When her contractions started on 31 January 2025, she was rushed into theatre for a C-section, stitched up and wheeled out as the next patient came in.
A shortage of beds in the recovery ward meant she was left in a storage room.
Surrogate mothers are three times more likely to undergo C-sections compared with non-surrogate mothers, studies show.
Surrogate pregnancies are three times more dangerous for both the mother and baby Credit: Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
Different countries have different surrogacy laws which can create grey areas Credit: Sandy AKNINE
This is often at the request of the commissioning parents rather than their own consent – allowing them to schedule and attend the birth.
Once discharged, the woman returned to a cold, dark apartment in Tbilisi with no heating or electricity during a harsh Georgian winter.
Throughout the pregnancy she received $400 a month from Kinderly, but her final payment never came. And she was not alone.
Kinderly stopped paying surrogates’ fees on time, cut off support for daily needs, and moved at least 17 women and ten children into a rundown hostel in one of Tbilisi’s remote districts, officials said.
Many were left suffering from painful scars on their stomachs, without postnatal medical care.
The company declared bankruptcy a month later, abandoning dozens of surrogate mothers in a rundown hostel. Kinderly has since closed down.
It remains unclear how many were tricked by the company, but in the following 12 months around 100 more Kinderly surrogates gave birth in Georgia.
Its founders were convicted of embezzling funds from surrogate mothers and biological parents and sentenced to 10 years in prison each by the Tbilisi City Court on June 30, 2026.
Nino said: “This case is important because it showed that problems in the surrogacy sector cannot simply be viewed as contractual or financial disputes.
“Systemic vulnerabilities and risks create real opportunities for exploitation of surrogate mothers and violations of their rights.”
But the Kinderly case is not the only scandal to rock the Georgian capital recently.
Last year, Tilsby police launched a probe into an alleged human trafficking ring which saw Thai women held prisoner and their eggs harvested.
The founders of Kinderly were convicted and jailed at Tbilisi City Court Credit: REUTERS
Commercial surrogacy is when a woman is paid to carry and deliver a baby beyond the reimbursement of expenses Credit: fizkes
Women were transported from Thailand under the guise of being surrogate mothers for £500-a-month and free accommodation.
But when they arrived the women’s passports were seized.
They were kept to group homes with dozens of other Thai women and injected with hormones to stimulate egg production, one rescued victim claimed.
Their harvested eggs were then allegedly sold for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) purposes.
Georgia is part of a “black market” pipeline between Turkey, and Northern Cyprus where surrogacy abuse runs rife, experts say.
While surrogacy remains illegal in Turkey, it is legal in its northeastern neighbour Georgia and southern neighbour Northern Cyprus.
This has created a depraved “cross-border surrogacy market”, Nino said.
Surrogacy operations banned in one country can “simply shift the activity to another without adequate human rights safeguards”, Nino added.
A separate investigation revealed an alleged surrogacy trafficking network spanning all three countries.
The case began on September 3, 2021, when Turkey’s Health Ministry received an anonymous tip about a fertility clinic in Istanbul’s affluent Beşiktaş district.
It claimed the clinic was targeting vulnerable young women, including minors, with promises of large payments for surrogacy.
Women were given fertility drugs to use at home before they were allegedly trafficked to Georgia and Northern Cyprus using forged documents.
But after a year-long probe, authorities could only identify one suspect who allegedly recruited the women.
The Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case in January 2023.
It comes as a growing number of single, British men are turning abroad to pursue surrogacy.
Data shows 130 single men in the UK applied to become legal parents of surrogate babies born abroad between 2019 and 2025.
But there were only 23 applications from the same group to use surrogate mothers in the UK over that period.
Campaigners say the figures show a “very concerning” development of single men “buying babies” born to foreign women living in poverty.
Commercial surrogacy – when a woman is paid to carry and deliver a baby beyond the reimbursement of expenses – is illegal in the UK.
But it is legal for Brits to have babies through international surrogacy arrangements with a parental order to ensure the surrogate consented.
Helen Gibson, the founder of Surrogacy Concern, has been campaigning for the government to criminalise the pursuit of surrogacy abroad, which she says opens the door to commercial surrogacy.
Helen describes the “monstrous trade” as “international baby shopping”.
She told The Jattvibe: “The majority of single men are looking abroad for a surrogate child – that’s something to be very, very concerned about
“Overseas, women cannot change their mind and have no rights over the baby.
“It reduces women to incubators. A mother’s instincts are overridden by contracts and their bodies are controlled before and after the birth.”
