Thirteen pregnant Filipino women arrested in Cambodia for surrogacy could be prosecuted after giving birth

PHNOM PENH: Thirteen pregnant Filipino women accused of illegally acting as surrogates in Cambodia after being recruited online could face jail terms after giving birth, a senior Interior Ministry official said on Saturday (Oct 12).

Interior Minister Chou Bun Eng, who is leading the country’s fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said police found 24 foreign women, 20 Filipinos and four Vietnamese, when they entered a villa in Kandal province, near the capital Phnom Penh. on September 23.

Thirteen of the Filipino women were found pregnant and were charged in court on October 1 under a provision of the anti-trafficking and sexual exploitation law, she said.

The law was updated in 2016 to ban commercial surrogacy after Cambodia became a popular destination for foreigners looking for women to bear their children.

Developing countries are popular for surrogacy because the costs are much lower than in countries like the United States and Australia, where surrogacy services can cost around $150,000.

The surrogacy sector boomed in Cambodia after strict restrictions were imposed in neighboring Thailand, as well as India and Nepal.

In July 2017, a Cambodian court sentenced an Australian woman and two Cambodian associates to one and a half years in prison for providing commercial surrogacy services.

The new case is unusual because surrogates are normally deployed in their own countries and not transported elsewhere.

Cambodia already has a bad reputation for human trafficking, especially in relation to online scams in which foreigners recruited for work under false pretenses are held in conditions of virtual slavery and help perpetrate online criminal fraud against targets in many countries.

Details about the new surrogacy case remain murky and officials have not clarified whether the women have been arrested or whether anyone involved in organizing the scheme has been identified.

Chou Bun Eng told The Associated Press that the company that recruited the surrogates was based in Thailand and that their food and accommodation in Cambodia was arranged from there.

She said authorities had not yet identified the company.

She said the seven Filipino women and four Vietnamese women who were arrested in the raid but were not pregnant would be deported soon.

The 13 pregnant women were treated at a hospital in Phnom Penh, Chou Bun Eng said.

She added that after the birth, they could be prosecuted on charges that could land them in prison for two to five years.

She said Cambodia did not view the women as victims, but rather as offenders who conspired with organizers to act as surrogates and then sell the babies for money.

Her claim could not be verified because the women could not be contacted and it is not known if they have lawyers.

The Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, responding to a local press report on the affair, issued a statement on Wednesday confirming most of the details regarding what it called the “rescue of 20 Filipino women.”

“The Philippine Embassy ensured that all 20 Filipinos were interviewed in the presence of an embassy representative and an interpreter at each step of the investigation process,” the report said.