Cambodia frees 32 surrogate mothers after they vow to keep their babies
- Surrogacy was banned in 2016 because the country was becoming a popular destination for foreign would-be parents
Thirty-two Cambodian women who were charged with human trafficking for serving as surrogate mothers have been provisionally released from detention after agreeing to keep the babies rather than giving them up as originally planned, officials said on Wednesday.
Bun Samkhan, a spokeswoman for the National Committee for Counter-Trafficking, said the women, who were charged in July with violating surrogacy and human trafficking laws, were released on bail in three groups, the last 17 on Wednesday.
A senior police officer who works at the same agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk publicly, said the women were released on humanitarian grounds.
He said they had committed crimes but their babies are innocent, and for that reason the committee requested that the court free them. They had been held at a police hospital. The identifies of the fathers have not been released.
Acting as an intermediary between an adoptive parent and a pregnant woman carries a penalty of one to six months in prison. The human trafficking offence is punishable by seven to 15 years’ imprisonment.
A Chinese man and four Cambodian women accused of managing the business were charged with the same offences.