13 women convicted in Cambodia of acting as surrogates for foreign
clients
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[December 03, 2024]
SOPHENG CHEANG
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Thirteen women from the Philippines have
been convicted on human trafficking-related charges for acting as
surrogates in Cambodia for a ring selling babies to foreigners for cash.
The women were each sentenced to four years in prison after being found
guilty of selling, buying or exchanging a person for cross-border
transfer, the Kandal Provincial Court said late Monday.
According to the verdict, two of the four years in prison were
suspended, meaning they won't have to be served unless they're found
guilty of another crime.
The women are held at a police hospital outside Phnom Penh, the
Cambodian capital, and authorities have previously said they would not
have to serve prison time until after giving birth.
The women can appeal the verdict, said court spokesperson So Sarin. He
refused to comment on how many were still pregnant, or what would happen
to the babies after they have given birth.
Developing countries have been popular for surrogacy because costs are
much lower compared to the United States and Australia, where surrogate
services could cost around $150,000.

The Cambodia case was unusual because surrogates normally are employed
in their own countries, not transported elsewhere.
Authorities have said the business that recruited the women was based in
Thailand, and that their food and accommodation in Cambodia was
organized there.
The women were arrested in late September in a raid on a villa in Kandal
province, where authorities found 20 Filipinos and four Vietnamese.
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A Cambodian vendor transports lotus flowers past King Norodom
Sihamoni's portrait in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith), File)

At the time the women were charged in October, Cambodia’s Interior
Ministry said the ringleaders had not been identified. It said,
however, that it considered the women offenders who conspired with
the organizers to act as surrogates and then sell the babies for
money, rather than victims.
Eleven of the women who were not pregnant were deported, and the 13
Filipinos were charged under a provision on Suppression of Human
Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. The law was updated in 2016 to
ban commercial surrogacy after Cambodia became a popular destination
for foreigners seeking women to give birth to their children.
Cambodia has a bad reputation for human trafficking, especially in
connection with online scams in which foreigners recruited for work
under false pretenses are kept in conditions of virtual slavery and
help perpetrate criminal fraud online against targets in many
countries.
The surrogacy business boomed in Cambodia after it was put under
tight restrictions in neighboring Thailand, as well as in India and
Nepal.
In July 2017, a Cambodian court sentenced an Australian woman and
two Cambodian associates to 1 1/2 years in prison for providing
commercial surrogacy services.
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