An alleged “industrial” level of fraud, human trafficking and sham embryo transfers in a surrogacy clinic in Greece may result in Irish clients being shut out of surrogacy arrangements there and in neighbouring North Cyprus.

The Greek authorities are investigating 400 cases of alleged wrongdoing and they have placed a number of newborns into a protected area of a hospital in Crete while DNA checks are carried out.

The Mediterranean Fertility Institute (MFI) clinic is accused of trafficking vulnerable women from countries such as Georgia and Albania to become surrogates for foreign couples and pocketing half the money that was supposed to be paid to them. Greek police allege that the women had their eggs harvested before becoming surrogates.

MFI is alleged to have falsified birth records and medical documents, prepared fictitious leases and cohabitation agreements and carried out fake embryo transfers. There are also allegations that the clinic arranged sham marriages for gay men to facilitate surrogacies because Greece does not allow surrogacy for homosexual couples.

The Sunday Independent spoke to one couple based in Northern Ireland that was using MFI who said they were very distressed by the revelations.

“We have paid for IVF and IVF with donor eggs there with no success,” said the Belfast-based women. “We have embryos frozen there too. But we have no facts to present as yet.”

Sam Everingham, global director of surrogacy liaison firm Growing Families, said the MFI scandal is likely to lead to a crackdown on unregulated surrogacy in other jurisdictions that Irish couples regularly use, such as North Cyprus.