The family of a Massachusetts 19-year-old woman and her 9-month-old baby have finally made it out of war-torn Ukraine, according to local news site WCVB.
Massachusetts parents Dr Deborah Hubbard and Dr William Hubbard say their daughter, Aislinn Hubbard, who had been studying in Kyiv at a prestigious dance school since 2018, had tried to cross the Slovakian border shared with the at-war country, but failed to make it across when agents asked to see her son’s birth certificate.
WCVB reported that Dr Hubbard and his daughter and grandchild were able to cross into Slovakia after hiking for hours through the mountains. The process of trying to evacuate the family ultimately took weeks, after a series of bureaucratic setbacks.
The family had previously run into troubles getting across the border. Because the young mother had a home birth, a byproduct of the ongoing pandemic, and the fact that she hadn’t anticipated fleeing the country from an invading army so soon after having her son, Seraphim, she still hadn’t procured the necessary documents (either a passport or a birth certificate) for travelling with her baby.
Seraphim’s father, a Ukrainian, isn’t allowed to leave the country due to the government’s ban on all men aged 18-60 from leaving the country.
At the Slovak border, Boston.com reported that Ms Hubbard had her son ripped from her arms out of what she and her family believe was concern around human trafficking.
Ms Hubbard father, Dr William Hubbard, was fortunately with the young woman when this nightmarish experience unfolded. He had travelled to the eastern European country recently in order to assist in getting his daughter and grandson out of the country.
The boy was returned to her later, but only after she went through the excruciatingly demeaning experience of showing pictures of herself and her son from their home birth.
Her father explained in an interview with Boston.com how he had been temporarily detained during the ordeal at a military camp and had even presented DNA tests plus an accompanying letter from the US State Department confirming the child’s identity in support of their case.
“They took us into custody, separated the baby from my daughter, and questioned us. The cops brought my daughter to a maternity hospital, then later gave the baby back to us,” Dr William Hubbard, a podiatrist who works in the small city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, told Boston. com.
“They didn’t care,” said Dr Hubbard.
Ms Hubbard, who had given birth to Seraphim during the height of the pandemic, had been advised by her parents and the US State Department to get a DNA test result to make fleeing the country easier when tensions between Russia and Ukraine began to intensify.
Sen Ed Markey’s office is aware of the Hubbards’ case but a spokesperson for the Massachusetts senator declined to provide any details to Boston.com about a case they’re actively engaged with.
“Our office does not comment on specifics related to constituent casework. We are in contact with Dr Hubbard and working to assist him and his family any way we can,” Francis Grubar, a spokesperson for Rep Lori Trahan, told Boston.com.
Aislinn Hubbard’s mother, who’s holding down the front back in Fitchburg, tells the local news outlet that the Ukrainian officials offered at one point to let the 19-year-old go ahead, but that she’d have to leave her son behind.
Expenses for the family to retrieve their daughter and grandson from the embattled region are beginning to rack up as the weeks of attempting to flee is beginning to stretch into a month. A Go Fund Me campaign, started by Dr Hubbard, has brought in more than $14,000 (£10,640) of their $50,000 (£38,000) goal as of Monday.
The funds are intended to help in offsetting the cost of legal fees, transportation, emergency housing and the replacement of household items, such as the playpen for Seraphim that was left behind in the family’s apartment in Kyiv.
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
