Pregnant Filipinas arrested in Cambodia for surrogacy could face jail

Thirteen pregnant Filipino women accused of acting illegally as surrogate mothers in Cambodia after being recruited online could face prison sentences after giving birth, a senior Interior Ministry official said Saturday.

Interior Ministry State Secretary Chou Bun-eng, who leads the country’s fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said police found 24 foreign women, 20 from the Philippines and four Vietnamese women, during a raid on a villa in the province of Kandal, near the capital Phnom Penh. , September 23.

Thirteen of the Filipino women were found to be pregnant and were charged in court on Oct. 1 under a provision of the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Act, she said.

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.

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

The surrogacy industry has boomed in Cambodia after facing strict restrictions 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.