Behind the closed doors of some upscale AirBnBs across Barbados, a hidden industry is quietly taking root.

“They all look pregnant and we heard babies crying,” a resident in an affluent district recounted, watching groups of women dressed in hijabs strolling to the beach.

These are not standard tourists. They are in Barbados because of a highly-organised, heavilyfunded “birth tourism” scheme capitalising on Barbados’ citizenship laws, something the Government says is not on a widespread level, even as pregnant women stream into the country.