Last summer, a woman was detained at Gatwick Airport after arriving from Nigeria with a very young baby girl.
She had been living in West Yorkshire with her husband and children, and before her departure to Africa, she had informed her GP that she was pregnant.
However, that claim was false.
Upon her return about a month later with the baby, she was arrested on suspicion of trafficking.
This case, the second the BBC has followed through the Family Court in recent months, highlights a concerning trend, according to experts, of babies potentially being brought into the UK illegally—some from alleged "baby factories" in Nigeria.
"My babies are always hidden"
The woman, identified as Susan, is Nigerian and had been living in England since June 2023 with her husband and children. A careworker with leave to remain in the UK, Susan had claimed she was pregnant, but scans and blood tests revealed that this was not the case. Instead, doctors discovered she had a tumour, which they feared could be cancerous. Despite this, Susan refused treatment.
Susan insisted that her previous pregnancies had never shown up on scans, telling her employer, "my babies are always hidden." She also claimed that she had been pregnant for up to 30 months with her other children.
In early June 2024, Susan travelled to Nigeria, stating that she wanted to give birth there, and later contacted her UK hospital to claim she had delivered her baby. Doctors grew concerned and alerted children's services.
Upon returning to the UK with the baby girl, whom we're calling Eleanor, Susan was stopped and arrested by Sussex Police. She was released on bail, and the police confirmed that there was no active investigation at the moment.
Following her arrest, Susan, her husband, and Eleanor underwent DNA tests. The results revealed that Eleanor had no genetic connection to either Susan or her husband. Susan then requested a second test, which returned the same result. She then changed her story, claiming she had undergone IVF treatment before moving to Britain in 2023 using a donor egg and sperm, explaining the negative DNA results.
Susan provided a letter from a Nigerian hospital, signed by the medical director, confirming her birth there, as well as documents from another clinic about the IVF treatment to support her claims. She also provided photos and videos, allegedly from the Nigerian hospital's labour suite, but the faces were obscured. One of the images showed a naked woman with a placenta between her legs, still attached to an umbilical cord.
Someone had given birth - it wasn't Susan
The Family Court in Leeds tasked Henrietta Coker with investigating the case. Coker, a social worker with nearly 30 years of experience, is an expert in family court reports. She trained in the UK and worked in child protection in London before moving to Africa.
Coker visited the medical centre where Susan claimed to have had IVF treatment but found no record of Susan’s treatment there. The staff informed her that the letter Susan had provided was forged.
She then went to the location Susan said she had given birth—a shabby, three-bedroom flat with "stained" walls and "dirty" carpets. Inside, Coker encountered "three young teenage girls sitting in the reception room wearing nurses' uniforms." She requested to speak to the matron, but was instead ushered into the kitchen where a teenage girl was eating rice.
Coker tracked down the doctor who had written the letter claiming Susan had given birth there. The doctor acknowledged that someone had indeed given birth, but upon seeing a photo of Susan, he said it wasn’t her. The doctor explained, "Impersonating people is common in this part of the world," and suggested that Susan might have "bought the baby."
Coker later informed the court that "baby farming" is a well-known practice in West Africa, with at least 200 illegal "baby factories" shut down by Nigerian authorities in the last five years. Some of these factories held young girls who were kidnapped, raped, and forced to give birth multiple times. "Sometimes these girls are released," Coker explained, "other times they die during childbirth or are murdered and buried on the premises."
While it remains unclear where baby Eleanor came from, the doctor speculated that she might have been voluntarily given up. Coker was unable to confirm the identity of Eleanor’s real parents.
In March, Coker provided evidence to the Family Court in Leeds, along with Susan, her husband, her employer, and a senior obstetrician. During an earlier hearing, the judge ordered an examination of Susan’s phone, which revealed messages Susan had sent to someone saved as "Mum oft [sic] Lagos Baby."
About four weeks before the alleged birth, Susan texted: "Good afternoon ma, I have not seen the hospital items." The response from "Mum Oft Lagos Baby" read: "Delivery drug is 3.4m. Hospital bill 170k." These amounts, likely in Nigerian Naira, would equate to roughly £1,700 and £85, according to Recorder William Tyler KC, the Family Court judge.
The local authority highlighted that the messages between Susan and "Mum oft [sic] Lagos Baby" were set to "automatic self-destruct mode," suggesting they were part of a deal to buy a baby.
In court, Susan attempted to explain the messages, but the Recorder found her explanations "difficult to follow and impossible to accept."
Recorder Tyler, serving as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, determined that Susan had "staged a scene" to falsely claim she had given birth to Eleanor in Nigeria. He stated that Susan and her husband had fabricated a "fundamental lie" to explain how Eleanor came into their care and had tried to mislead authorities with forged documents. As a result, they had caused significant emotional and psychological harm to the child.
In early July, the BBC attended the final hearing in Eleanor's case, which was held remotely. During the Teams meeting, Susan and her husband appeared composed and focused as they listened to the proceedings. They expressed their desire to have Eleanor returned to them. Their barristers argued that their other children were thriving and that they wanted to provide Eleanor with the same love and care.
Susan's husband described Eleanor as "a fundamental part of their family unit."
However, Vikki Horspool, representing the child's guardian from the Independent Children and Family Child Advisory Service, challenged this, stating that the couple "continued to be dishonest" about Eleanor's true origins and how she came into their care.
The judge ultimately ruled that Eleanor would be placed for adoption and issued a "declaration of non-parentage." He acknowledged the "pain" this decision would cause Susan and her husband.
The local authority's barrister informed the court that Eleanor is "very settled" with her foster carer, actively participating in community activities and receiving medical treatment. When adopted, Eleanor will be given a new identity and British nationality, though she may never know her real parents.
Eleanor's case mirrors that of "Lucy," who was brought to Manchester Airport in 2023 by a man claiming to be her father.
'Money exchanged for children'
Ms. Coker believes that more children may have been unlawfully brought to the UK from West Africa. She told the BBC that since the pandemic, she has worked on around a dozen similar cases, and in her experience, baby trafficking is widespread.
"Money is being exchanged for children on a large scale," she said, noting that this is happening not only in Africa but "across the global south."
Since 2021, the UK government has restricted adoptions from Nigeria, partly due to "evidence of organised child trafficking" within the country.
British authorities have been aware of the issue for many years, with several cases making their way through the Family Courts over the past two decades. Notably, two hearings in 2011 and 2012 involved Nigerian couples who had undergone "fertility treatment" resulting in a "miracle baby."
These "treatments" continue, as recently uncovered by BBC Africa Eye's investigative journalists.
In 2013, the UK High Commission in Lagos required DNA tests in specific cases before newborn babies could be taken from Nigeria to the UK. Among the 12 couples investigated was a former Oxford academic who was later prosecuted for immigration offences.
However, this process was stopped in 2018 when officials were advised that such DNA testing was unlawful. They were told they could not force people to undergo DNA testing when applying for visas or passports relating to immigration status, and this had been the case since 2014.
Ms. Coker explained that some clinics offer "packages" that include registering the baby's birth, with costs ranging from £2,000 to £8,000, excluding airfare.
She believes more people in the UK need to be aware of this issue. Tackling it is difficult, she said, though DNA testing of newborns and their purported parents could help. However, she questioned whether the British government could do much to stop it, explaining, "The issues start in countries where the children are born."
Patricia Durr, CEO of the anti-trafficking charity ECPAT, emphasized that cases like these are particularly "heinous" because they deny children their right to an identity. She stressed, "Every effort must be made to prevent these egregious crimes from occurring."
A government spokesperson commented, "Falsely claiming to be the parent of a child to facilitate entry to the UK is illegal. Those found doing so will face the full force of the law."
"Border Force is committed to protecting individuals who cross the border, and where concerns are raised, officers will take action to safeguard individuals who could be at risk."
The BBC reached out to the Nigerian High Commission for a statement, but they did not respond.