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Agence France-Presse

A group of women allegedly paid to be surrogate mothers have been released on bail after agreeing to keep the babies, Cambodia’s trafficking tsar said on Wednesday.
The 11 women were charged in November with human trafficking and acting as intermediaries for surrogacy agents after they were discovered in a raid on a house in the capital Phnom Penh.
They have been in custody since the raid, with some giving birth behind bars.
Cambodia issued a snap ban on commercial surrogacy in 2016 after neighbouring Thailand pulled the plug on the trade the previous year – abruptly ending a thriving industry for hopeful parents, many from Australia and the United States.
How Asia’s surrogate mothers became a cross-border business
An Australian nurse who ran a surrogacy clinic was jailed for 18 months, and quietly released last year after the term was served.
But demand for commercial surrogacy remains high after China eased its one-child policy and shadow markets in Cambodia continue to offer the service.

According to an agency, desperate couples – mostly from China – are willing to pay between US$40,000 and US$100,000 to surrogacy agents to find a Cambodian woman who can carry their child in her womb.
The 11 women arrested in November refused to tell authorities who they were carrying the babies for, according to Chou Bun Eng, vice-president of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Committee.
“They were released on bail last month after they promised not to give up their babies,” she said.
But the charges against them stand and the women could be prosecuted at any time if “they sell the babies”, she said, adding that a draft surrogacy law is still under discussion and could see the trade formally outlawed.
Baby ban: how India’s strict new surrogacy law is practically prohibition
Rights groups have criticised authorities for coercing women to raise babies who bear no biological ties to them to avoid jail time.
But Chou Bun Eng said that Cambodian law means they must take care of the babies.
“They are the mother of the children,” she added.




Surrogates are typically from poor communities and receive a fraction of the sum paid to agents – typically between US$10,000 and US$15,000 to carry a child to term.
Sam Everingham, founder of Families Through Surrogacy, an Australian non-profit, said the case of the 11 women is “tragic”, with the surrogates and intended parents being the victims.
Surrogacy in Hong Kong: risks and legal ramifications involved
“The young infants are simply collateral damage,” he said. “The real felons here are the surrogacy agents and agencies who convinced naive surrogates and intended parents” to act in an environment where the practice is unlawful.
In December, 32 Cambodian women paid to carry babies for Chinese clients were also released on bail after agreeing to keep the children.


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Cambodia

Cambodia releases 11 surrogate mothers from jail after they agree to keep babies

Surrogacy is illegal in Cambodia. Photo: EPA-EFE

--ATNX1 SURROGATE-- Guizhou woman pays 450,000 yuan for a Cambodian surrogate but baby born with serious defects. (photo taken from: https://finance.sina.cn/consume/bgt/2018-01-03/detail-ifyqefvx5720136.d.html?from=wap)

How Asia’s surrogate mothers became a cross-border business

Clampdowns on surrogacy in Cambodia, Thailand and India have led to the emergence of complex, cross-border operations that put women, children and would-be parents at greater risk than before

FILE- In this Oct. 11, 2013, file photo, Embryologist Rick Slifkin demonstrates fertilization techniques on a nonviable embryo at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, in New York. A new 12-year U.S. study published Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows complications including deaths are uncommon from procedures that include IVF. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

The entrance of New Life IVF clinic shows its closed doors in Bangkok on August 15, 2014. A gay Australian couple have been stopped from leaving Thailand with a baby for having incomplete documents for the infant, immigration police said, in the latest twist in a widening surrogacy scandal in the kingdom. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI / AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS ASFOURI

Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua (L) kiss her baby Gammy, born with Down Syndrome, at the Samitivej hospital, Sriracha district in Chonburi province on August 4, 2014. The surrogate mother of a baby reportedly abandoned by his Australian parents in Thailand because he has Down Syndrome was a "saint" and "absolute hero", Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. AFP PHOTO / Nicolas ASFOURI / AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS ASFOURI

(FILES) This file photograph taken on October 29, 2015, shows Indian surrogate mothers as they gather during a peaceful protest in the campus of Dr. Nayana Patel's Kaival Hospital in Anand, some 90 kms from Ahmedabad. India's government on August 24, 2016, has approved plans to ban the booming commercial surrogacy industry, a move that would block thousands of foreign couples who flock to centres to have a baby. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said cabinet approved a bill to restrict surrogacy services to local married couples, following concerns about the exploitation of young, poor Indian women who bear babies for others. / AFP PHOTO / Sam PANTHAKY

In this image taken from video supplied Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 by Channel 9's "60 Minutes", David Farnell, right, his wife Wendy, left, pose with baby Pipah in Australia. The Australian couple, David and his wife Wendy Farnell, has denied that they abandoned their son born with Down syndrome to a Thai surrogate. The couple said in the interview that the boy's surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, insisted she be allowed to keep the boy and that she threatened to also keep his twin sister Pipah. (AP Photo/Channel 9 60 Minutes) AUSTRALIA OUT, NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

An advert for an IVF clinic in Bangkok. Photo: EPA

Va Tey, a surrogate mother in Cambodia who says she was not fully paid, with her daughter, who was born before Va worked as a surrogate.

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2016, an Indian infant sleeps inside the Neonatal ICU at the Akanksha Hospital and Research Institute situated near Anand town, some 80 kms from Ahmedabad. At a hostel for dozens of pregnant women, impoverished widow Sharmila Mackwan weighs up her decision to carry twins for another couple -- her only ticket out of poverty -- as the government moves to close India's multi-million dollar surrogacy industry. / AFP PHOTO / SAM PANTHAKY / TO GO WITH AFP STORY INDIA-SOCIAL-HEALTH-SURROGACY,FEATURE BY ABHAYA SRIVASTAVA

A Thai surrogate, Wassana, sits in a rented room in Bangkok. She was offered US$10,000 to help a foreign couple who wanted a child but could not conceive. Photo: AP

Baby ban: how India’s strict new surrogacy law is practically prohibition

Surrogate mothers must be aged 25 to 35, already have a child of their own, and can only offer their services once, according to new strict new legislation in India. File photo: Reuters

For Indian women like Vandana, a 32-year-old from Gujarat who has two children of her own, surrogacy provides an annual income several times higher than what she previously earned as a domestic worker.

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2016, Indian surrogate mothers rest at the Akanksha Hospital and Research Institute situated near Anand town, some 80 kms from Ahmedabad. - At a hostel for dozens of pregnant women, impoverished widow Sharmila Mackwan weighs up her decision to carry twins for another couple -- her only ticket out of poverty -- as the government moves to close India's multi-million dollar surrogacy industry. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY INDIA-SOCIAL-HEALTH-SURROGACY,FEATURE BY ABHAYA SRIVASTAVA

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2016, Nayana Patel, Indian Infertility Specialist, Surrogacy expert and the Managing Director (MD)of the Akanksha Hospital and Research Institute, sits in her office at the hospital situated near Anand town, some 80 kms from Ahmedabad. - At a hostel for dozens of pregnant women, impoverished widow Sharmila Mackwan weighs up her decision to carry twins for another couple -- her only ticket out of poverty -- as the government moves to close India's multi-million dollar surrogacy industry. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY INDIA-SOCIAL-HEALTH-SURROGACY,FEATURE BY ABHAYA SRIVASTAVA

Surrogacy in Hong Kong: all you need to know about the risks and legal ramifications involved

In Hong Kong, surrogacy agreements are unenforceable and commercial surrogacy is illegal. Photo: Alamy

E5RXY8 A technician is using a light microscope to select human eggs (ovum) for in vitro fertilization, Medically Assisted Procreation Photo: Alamy

FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2014, file photo, the media attend a press briefing where Thai police display projected pictures of surrogate babies born to a Japanese man who is at the center of a surrogacy scandal during a press conference at the police headquarters in Chonburi, Thailand. The Japanese father of the surrogate babies Mitsutoki Shigeta is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin and earns millions of dollars a year in dividends. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

Kong Suriyamontol (C-with sunglasses), the Thai lawyer for Japanese national Mitsutoki Shigeta, speaks to the press after his client was granted paternity rights to his children, at a juvenile court in Bangkok on February 20, 2018. A Bangkok court on February 20 granted Shigeta "sole parent" rights to 13 babies fathered through Thai surrogate mothers, a ruling that paves the way for him to take custody of the children. / AFP PHOTO / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

The 11 women, some of whom gave birth in jail, were charged in November after they were discovered in a raid in Phnom Penh
Demand for commercial surrogacy is high in Cambodia, with desperate couples, mostly from China, willing to pay between US$40,000 and US$100,000 to a woman who can carry their child


The 11 women, some of whom gave birth in jail, were charged in November after they were discovered in a raid in Phnom Penh.


Crime

Human trafficking