US arrests ‘birth tourism’ operators linked to China

Washington: US authorities arrested three people on charges of running “birth tourism” companies that catered to Chinese clients in southern California, the media reported. It is the first time that criminal charges have been filed in a US federal court over the practice, CNN quoted Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, as saying on Thursday. “Birth tourists” travel to foreign countries to give birth, so that their children acquire the citizenship of that country. In the US, the legal principle of “jus soli” or right of the soil, automatically confers citizenship upon babies born on US soil. Other countries, including Switzerland and Japan, do not grant citizenship automatically unless one or more parents are also citizens. (IANS)

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