Yen, aged 31, and Hue, aged 35, are being investigated in Vietnam for “organizing commercial surrogacy“.
Hue said that she met a man, Yang, who introduced himself as a hospital director. For a fee of 50-60 million dongs ($2,100-2,500), she made an agreement with him to bring Vietnamese women to China, where she was working, to be surrogate mothers. Hue then found 11 women, including Yen, on social media, whom she brought from Vietnam to China. Yen in turn, who proved to be sterile, found another five women for Hue.
Between March and October 2018, the 15 women were taken to a hospital in Guangzhou, China. In November 2018, Hue and some of the pregnant women were sent back to Vietnam by Yang, where they settled in a house rented by Hue.
Police raided the property in March 2019. Hue admitted to receiving 260 million dongs ($11,216) for the ‘purchase’ of these 15 women. Yen had been paid 30 million dongs ($1,292). Each surrogate mother apparently received 300-400 million dongs after giving birth. It was later discovered that Yen had also been involved in another group of surrogate mothers. She had found five other women and was paid 150 million dongs ($6,462).
This investigation comes three days after two other women who had been hired to be surrogate mothers were arrested in the Philippines.
Asia Times (15/04/2019) – Vietnamese child surrogacy ring investigated