No Laws, High Risks: The Truth About Albanian Surrogacy

Albanian surrogacy is the kind of topic that should make intended parents stop and think very carefully before doing anything at all. When a country has no clear surrogacy framework, no proper safeguards, and no settled legal pathway for parentage, the risks do not sit at the edges. They sit right at the centre.

At present, Albanian surrogacy raises serious concerns about exploitation, trafficking, commodification, and uncertainty over who the legal parents of a child actually are. That is not a technical problem. It is a human problem. It affects women, children, and intended parents alike.

For Australians considering overseas arrangements, Albania is not simply “developing” or “uncertain”. It is, in practical terms, a legal wild west.

Where Albania fits into the international surrogacy picture

Albania sits across the Adriatic from Italy, between Greece and the Balkans. It is also one of the poorest countries in mainland Europe. That matters, not because poverty automatically means abuse, but because poverty can create the conditions in which vulnerable women are more easily exploited.

That is one of the reasons Albanian surrogacy has attracted concern internationally. If there are no effective laws regulating how surrogacy is arranged, paid for, supervised, and recognised, then the risk of abuse increases dramatically.

Good surrogacy law is not about bureaucracy for its own sake. It is about setting the rules clearly enough that everyone knows:

• who can enter a surrogacy arrangement
• what payments are lawful
• how consent is obtained
• how the surrogate is protected
• how the child’s legal parentage is secured
• what happens if something goes wrong

Without that framework, people are left operating in uncertainty, and uncertainty in surrogacy is dangerous.

No Australian children recorded from Albanian surrogacy so far

One striking point is that, so far, no Australian child has been recorded as born through surrogacy in Albania and then applying for Australian citizenship by descent.

Australia is unusual in collecting this kind of country-by-country data on children born overseas through surrogacy. That information matters because it gives some indication of where Australians are going for international arrangements. On the available figures referred to here, Albania has never appeared.

That does not mean surrogacy is not happening there. It plainly is. What it does suggest is that Albanian surrogacy has not become an established or trusted pathway for Australians, and there may be very good reasons for that.

Anyone exploring international options should also understand that overseas surrogacy always needs contingency planning. A proper back-up plan is essential when laws, borders, clinics, and parentage processes can all shift unexpectedly.

Why Albania is described as a “wild west”

The phrase “wild west” is apt because there is currently no proper regulation of surrogacy in Albania. That absence of law is not a freedom. It is a warning sign.

When there are no clear rules, intended parents may assume flexibility is an advantage. In reality, lack of regulation often means:

• No reliable protection for the surrogate
• No certainty about lawful payments
• No settled process for establishing parentage
• No consistent standards for clinics or agencies
• No proper screening against abuse or coercion

This is exactly why surrogacy law matters. A well-regulated system should protect all parties. An unregulated system usually protects the powerful and leaves the vulnerable exposed.

Why Israel’s concerns matter

One of the most telling indicators about Albanian surrogacy is that Albania has appeared on Israel’s restricted or “naughty list” for international surrogacy destinations. The concerns associated with that listing are serious: trafficking of women, exploitation of women, and commodification of children.

Those are not minor regulatory defects. They go to the moral core of surrogacy practice.

If a country earns international concern because women may be treated as a source of reproductive labour without meaningful protection, intended parents should pay attention. If there are fears that children are effectively being treated as products of a transaction, that should stop the conversation immediately.

Surrogacy can be ethical, but only when it is built on informed consent, independent advice, clear legal rules, and respect for the dignity of everyone involved.

The 2024 Albanian bill and why it has not solved the problem

There was an attempt at reform. In 2024, Albania’s health minister introduced a bill that would have allowed only altruistic surrogacy and not commercial surrogacy.

That sounds promising on paper. But the critical point is this: as at 17 March 2026, that bill had not been enacted.

So for practical purposes, the legal vacuum remains.

That is often one of the traps in cross-border fertility law. People hear that “a bill has been introduced” or that “changes are coming” and assume the system is now safe or settled. It is not. Proposed reform is not the same thing as actual law.

More broadly, international surrogacy is an area where legal change is constant and often unpredictable. That is true not only in Albania but globally, as discussed in this piece on how surrogacy change is coming.

The parentage problem in Albania surrogacy

One of the biggest practical risks in Albanian surrogacy is parentage.

Based on the position described, there appears to be a need for permission from an adoption committee and a court hearing to secure parentage. In the meantime, at least initially, the people named on the birth certificate are the biological father and the surrogate.

That should set alarm bells ringing.

In any surrogacy arrangement, one of the most important legal questions is simple: who is the child’s legal parent at birth, and how is that changed if necessary?

If the answer is unclear, delayed, or dependent on later court or administrative intervention, intended parents may face major problems involving:

• travel documents
• citizenship applications
• medical decision-making
• parental responsibility
• recognition back in Australia

This is why legal certainty is not an academic concern. It is foundational. A child should not begin life caught in a gap between competing legal systems.

For those wanting to understand how courts grapple with parentage and surrogacy issues, this Family Court guide provides useful background on the kinds of legal complexities that can arise.

Why regulation is essential, not optional

There is sometimes a mistaken idea that fewer laws mean fewer problems. In surrogacy, the opposite is usually true.

Proper regulation serves at least two vital functions.

1. It secures the child’s parentage

The law should provide a clear pathway so there is no confusion about who the child’s parents are. Children deserve certainty. They should not be left in a legal limbo because adults chose a jurisdiction with weak or non-existent rules.

2. It reduces exploitation and commodification

Regulation should help ensure that:

• surrogates are acting freely
• they have proper medical and legal support
• payments are transparent and lawful
• agencies and clinics are accountable
• children are not treated as commodities

Those principles align with broader Australian government concerns about ethical intercountry arrangements and the protection of children. Readers wanting general guidance on citizenship and overseas legal processes can consult the Australian Government’s Smartraveller website and the Department of Home Affairs.

Should Australians pursue Albanian surrogacy?

On the information available, Albanian surrogacy is not something that can be recommended in good conscience.

That conclusion is not driven by prejudice against one country. It is driven by the absence of safeguards. When there is no proper regulation, the risks become too high:

• high ethical risk
• high legal risk
• high parentage risk
• high reputational risk
• high risk of harm to surrogates and children

Australians pursuing surrogacy overseas need to think beyond the immediate goal of having a child. They need to ask whether the arrangement is lawful, ethical, and stable from beginning to end. If the country cannot answer basic questions about protection, consent, and parentage, that should be the end of the enquiry.

The broader lesson from Albania surrogacy

The real lesson from Albanian surrogacy is not just “do not go there”. It is broader than that.

No law about surrogacy is not a good idea.

Surrogacy works best when there is a clear, transparent, enforceable legal structure. That structure should protect the surrogate from exploitation, protect the child from legal uncertainty, and protect intended parents from stepping into arrangements that are ethically or legally unsound.

When those rules are missing, the entire system becomes unstable. In that environment, abuses are more likely, not less.

That is why Albanian surrogacy currently stands as a cautionary example in international fertility law. It shows what happens when demand exists, but regulation does not.

About Stephen Page

Stephen Page is widely regarded as Australia’s leading surrogacy lawyer and one of the country’s best-known voices in family and fertility law. He has long advised intended parents on domestic and international surrogacy, with a strong focus on legal clarity, ethical practice, and protecting the welfare of children. His work has helped shape the understanding of surrogacy law in Australia, particularly in complex cross-border matters.