A Cuban woman identified as Mercedes, 39 weeks pregnant, was detained by immigration agents after leaving a medical appointment in the Russian city of Pervouralsk, just days before giving birth.
The woman ended up confined in a detention center for foreigners and was later transported under custody to a hospital when contractions began, according to the Russian outlet E1.RU in a report published on August 18.
The agents confiscated her passport and its notarized translation and took her to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens in Ekaterinburg. Her partner and her lawyer report that the facility does not provide adequate conditions for a pregnant woman or a newborn.
Her partner, Sergey, a Russian citizen residing in Pervouralsk, told E1.RU that they met in Moscow and later traveled to Yekaterinburg, where Mercedes became pregnant.
The man claimed that he paid for his consultations at private clinics and later discovered that Mercedes's immigration card had expired and that she did not have authorization to work.
During the second trimester of her pregnancy, they traveled to Moscow to seek assistance from the Cuban consulate with the paperwork, but, according to their account, they did not receive a response. They also were unable to regularize Mercedes's immigration status or formalize their relationship.
The arrest occurred just a few days before the birth.
"It was the third trimester and Mercedes was being attended to by a general practitioner at a private clinic. Upon leaving the hospital, we were stopped by immigration agents," Sergey told E1.RU.
Mercedes was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital on August 17, with a probable delivery date of the 19th. After being detained, she began experiencing contractions and was escorted by police to a maternity hospital, but was later returned to the detention center.
Sergey hired a lawyer and requested the intervention of the Ombudsman of the Sverdlovsk region, Tatyana Merzlyakova. He fears that Mercedes may be deported to Cuba with the baby or that the child could end up separated from their parents.
"I want to save my family. My son is my priority. And it is important that he grows up in a healthy family," he stated.
The lawyer Veronika Aleksandrovna Nikitina, from the law firm Law and Law, also questioned the conditions in which the Cuban is being held.
"The conditions in the migrant center are terrible; it's not a place for a baby. The child could be sent back to Cuba with her, which the parents do not want, or they could be placed in an orphanage," she stated. The lawyer added that Mercedes suffers from asthma and shares a room with people who smoke.
Sergey also reported a deterioration in his partner's physical condition. "Mercedes's pain has worsened; she can hardly walk and has been returned to the police. I believe they are neglecting her health; they didn't even give her painkillers," he stated.
The case occurs amidst the , which is also affecting many Cubans.
Since April, Cuban migrants with documentation issues have been sent to the detention center in Sájarovo, near Moscow, where relatives have reported periods of uncommunication and difficulties in obtaining information about their situation.
The issue takes on a particularly sensitive dimension when it involves pregnant women. elTOQUE has documented cases of Cuban women confined in Russian deportation centers during their pregnancies, as well as the legal obstacles their children may face due to the country's citizenship regulations.
At the end of the report from E1.RU, the police in Yekaterinburg had not responded to the media's requests to provide their version of the case concerning Mercedes.
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