About 100 surrogate-born babies stranded in Ukraine because of coronavirus

In this photo taken Thursday a nurse takes care of babies born to surrogate mothers for foreign parents in a large room of the hotel where the Biotexcom clinic, the country's largest surrogate operation, in Kyiv, Ukraine.(Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Dozens of babies are stuck in Ukraine without their parents because of coronavirus.

The nearly 100 infants were all born to surrogate mothers in the country, and their foreign parents have been locked out because of COVID-19 restrictions, the Associated Press reported.

Biotexcom, a large clinic for newborns Kyiv, has posted several videos of the babies in their building receiving care, but the sheer number of children without parents has drawn attention.

Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman, said that "if quarantine is extended, then it will not be about hundreds, but about thousands,” according to the AP.

Biotexcom itself is home to 51 foreign babies who can’t return home. Fifteen of those children saw their parents arrive before lockdown but get stuck as new rules came down.

Denisova’s office proposed a system where the outside parents could write to Ukraine’s government requesting permission to enter and reclaim their children, Al Jazeera reported. Officials would evaluate the statements and make a decision.

Ukraine has been closed to all foreign visitors since early April, and restrictions were recently extended until May 22.

Ukraine is one of few countries that allow foreigners to pay for surrogate mothers.