Tag: Cambodia

Wombs for hire: the painful price of Asia’s baby trade

South China Morning Post | July 11, 2026

Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia have all banned compensated surrogacy for foreign intended parents in response to exploitation in the industry. As a result of the bans, intended parents from China–where domestic surrogacy is not allowed–are seeking surrogacy arrangements in countries such as Georgia and Armenia–where surrogacy remains legal–or in underground networks that span several countries to evade authorities. China does grant citizenship to children born via surrogacy in other countries – an important factor that maintains demand within the “shadow economy” of surrogacy in Asia. Based on concerns about the inability of the existing ban to address exploitation in Thailand, Thai officials are considering policy reforms. 

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Police rescue 11 babies in major bust on international surrogacy ring exploiting Vietnamese women

The Independent | August 10, 2025

Vietnamese authorities report that they have dismantled an international surrogacy network between Vietnam, China, and Cambodia and have rescued 11 infants from the operation. The network violated Vietnamese laws that prohibit compensated surrogacy. 

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Filipino surrogates receive royal pardon

PET | January 13, 2025

Thirteen women from the Philippines acting as surrogates in Cambodia were convicted under Cambodian human trafficking laws, but they received royal pardons and were taken back to the Philippines. Most are still pregnant while some were repatriated with children they birthed as a result of the surrogacy arrangements. 

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Cambodia jails 13 pregnant Filipino surrogates

BBC | December 3, 2024

Thirteen pregnant women from the Philippines who were part of an underground surrogacy operation have been convicted of human trafficking in Cambodia and were sentenced to 4 years in prison once they give birth.

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Cambodia cracks down on illegal international surrogacy as demand remains high

October 24, 2024 | EuroNews

The arrest of 13 Filipina women in Cambodia sheds light on how women with limited economic opportunities are recruited to work as surrogates, which makes them vulnerable to arrest in countries that have banned surrogacy under human trafficking laws. 

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Pregnant Philippine women arrested in Cambodia for surrogacy could be prosecuted after giving birth

CNN | October 13, 2024

A police raid on a villa in Cambodia found 13 pregnant Philippine women who they suspected to be surrogates, which is illegal in Cambodia. Cambodian authorities say that the women were charged with crimes under the country’s human trafficking laws and may face prison time, but details of the case have not yet come to light.

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Man arrested for supplying frozen semen to surrogacy rackets abroad

Thai PBS World | February 25, 2024

Thai police arrested a man thought to be a provider of frozen sperm, ova, and embryos for clinics operating in Laos and Cambodia as part of an illegal transnational surrogacy network. (Note “embryos” was incorrectly translated as “fetuses” in the article)

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They Were Surrogates. Now They Must Raise the Children.

Hannah Beech | The New York Times | November 26, 2022

In 2018, 30 Cambodian surrogates were convicted of human trafficking, served time in prison, and gave birth while imprisoned–some chained to their beds. In exchange for suspended sentences, they have had to raise the children themselves. This journalist followed the surrogates for the last 10 months to report on their stories within Cambodia’s gray market.

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UN Call to Stop Criminalisation of Surrogates in Cambodia

By Lea Goetz | BioNews | November 18, 2019

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has condemned the decision by the Cambodian government to require that 30 surrogates, previously imprisoned for ‘cross-border human trafficking,’ raise the children they carried for intended parents living outside the country.

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Article: Thirty-Three Pregnant Cambodian Women Discovered in Surrogacy Raid

Thirty-Three Pregnant Cambodian Women Discovered in Surrogacy Raid
By Reuters | June 23, 2018

This article covers the crackdown on surrogacy in Cambodia, and the subsequent of arrest – and charge – of five people under the country’s anti-trafficking law.

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the guardianIn an update from The Guardian, the government also charged the thirty-three gestational mothers under the same law – they were not charged initially – raising potential questions about the use of regulation related to human trafficking on surrogacy.

These arrests are not the first. After Cambodia announced a ban on commercial surrogacy in 2016 while legislation was being considered, an Australian nurse and two Cambodian assistants were convicted of running an illegal commercial surrogacy clinic in the country. They were later sentenced to one and a half years in prison.