On Saturday, 23 June, Cambodian police raided a child surrogacy ring in Phnom Penh, and arrested five people including one Chinese national. “33 women were involved. Some had already given birth whilst others were still at various stages of pregnancy”. Each woman was promised $10,000 to carry the child of a Chinese couple.
Since the Chinese authorities have relaxed the one child rule, requests for medically assisted reproduction have multiplied. Experts estimate that 90 million women are authorised to have a second child, but some of them are too old to have a child naturally (see South-East Asia – a real reproduction supply chain for Chinese couples).
However, nearby countries including Thailand in 2015 and Cambodia in 2016, banned this practice deeming it to encourage the exploitation of women. Chou Bun Eng, Vice-Chair of the National Committee for Counter-Trafficking, has announced that, in the absence of legislation governing surrogacy, perpetrators could be prosecuted under anti-trafficking laws that provide for two-year to 20-year prison sentences if a child is sold for adoption.
Libération (23/06/2018), The Guardian (23/06/2018)