Update 1/4/2025: Cambodia has pardoned and repatriated 13 Filipino women who had been imprisoned for partaking in illegal surrogacy.
Twenty-four women were detained by Cambodian authorities in September and sentenced to four years in prison on charges of cross-border human trafficking. A Cambodian court ruled that the women intended to carry and birth children to sell to third parties, which is illegal human trafficking under Cambodian law.
The Philippine government, however, argued that the women themselves were victims of trafficking. On December 29, the 13 Filipino women and three babies were sent to a government shelter for trafficking victims in Manila. Ten of the women are currently pregnant. It is unclear who will raise the babies.
“The 13 women who departed Phnom Penh have safely arrived in Manila following a royal pardon granted by His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni,” said the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
Though surrogacy is illegal in Cambodia and Thailand, high demand for surrogates from Chinese citizens continues with couples from China paying between $40,000 and $100,000 to surrogacy agents tasked with finding Cambodian women to act as surrogates.
12/8/2024: A surrogacy case has several different countries arguing over its implications, as 13 surrogates have been arrested and charged with human trafficking. Yet, their home country of the Philippines argues that the women are victims of trafficking, not perpetrators.
Radio Free Asia reported that the women were arrested in September, while most of them were still pregnant, in a police raid conducted from a home in Kandal province. It’s not known how many are still pregnant. The women were initially sentenced to four years in prison, convicted of “attempting to engage in human trafficking for cross-border trafficking,” but two years of the sentences were suspended.
A court spokesperson said the women “intended to use surrogacy to create babies with the intention of selling them to a third party in exchange for money,” and added that “[t]his act must be defined as a human trafficking offense.”
Yet the Philippine embassy disagrees. In a statement, it argued that the women were victims and should be released, describing the raid as a “rescue” and insisting that the people behind the trafficking should be the ones held responsible.
READ: Italy expands prohibition on surrogacy to citizens seeking it abroad
“Based on preliminary interviews, the recruitment of these 20 Filipino women took place in cyberspace by an individual whose identity and nationality have yet to be determined conclusively,” the embassy statement said. “The recruiter with an apparently assumed name arranged for the women to travel to another Southeast Asian country but eventually sent them to Cambodia where surrogacy is banned.”
Licadho, a human rights group, has likewise demanded the Cambodian government to make publicly available the evidence allegedly proving the women are perpetrators, not victims. “It is important that the authorities and the court show transparency in the investigation,” Am Sam Ath told Radio Free Asia. “This is important to avoid controversy and criticism of the trial.”
It is not known what will happen to the babies these women carried. According to AsiaNews, the women were inseminated in Thailand before being taken to Cambodia. Though surrogacy is illegal in Cambodia, couples in China allegedly pay for Cambodian surrogates with prices ranging from $40,000 to $100,000.
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