Women expected to meet interior ministry and Australian embassy officials in wake of proclamation banning commercial surrogacy and three arrests

The Cambodian government has sought to reassure pregnant surrogates and would-be parents they will not face prosecution as it cracks down on the country’s fledgling commercial surrogacy industry, which was completely unregulated until a few weeks ago.



Last week anti-human trafficking authorities arrested Tammy Charles, an Australian who operates Fertility Solutions PGD, along with a Cambodian nurse and a commerce ministry official. According to the Cambodia Daily newspaper, all three have been imprisoned pending trial on charges of requesting false documents and acting as intermediaries between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman.

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Fertility Solutions PGD was established in Thailand but began offering its services of matching families with surrogates in Cambodia, where officials began investigating its operations 10 months ago. The Cambodian Daily report said 18 women matched with families by the clinic were now pregnant.

After Thai authorities began closing surrogacy clinics and India and Nepal introduced legislation to ban the practice, operators looked towards Cambodia, where about 50 clinics now offer commercial surrogacy, in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfers at a fraction of costs advertised abroad.

Women’s rights advocates here have spoken of their concern that surrogates could be exploited. In late October, the health minister, Mam Bunheng, took the first step towards regulating the sector by issuing a prakas, or proclamation, that banned commercial surrogacy and tightened restrictions on IVF and sperm donations. A draft law has yet to be sent to politicians for consideration.



The arrests just weeks after the proclamation raised questions as to what fate would befall surrogates who were already pregnant, as well as the expectant families with whom they had been matched. On Thursday these women are expected to meet officials from the interior ministry and representatives from the Australian embassy to assess how to proceed.



Contacted on Wednesday, Fertility Solutions PGD said in a written message that the surrogates and families were “already a priority so no need to report on it”. The Australian embassy did not immediately respond to questions.



Rodrigo Montero Cano, a gender and communications adviser working for the German development agency GIZ, told Guardian Australia that government measures to crack down on commercial surrogacy in Cambodia were temporary “until there is legislation on the topic”.



“But there is not much clarity in my view about the enforcement of the law, and that’s why the [interior ministry] has a meeting to discuss how to proceed with this issue,” he said.



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He said he believed the government “wants to make a clear signal that surrogacy is not allowed in Cambodia; at least for foreigners”.



Ros Sopheap, executive director of the Gender and Development for Cambodia non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday that details of how the government planned to regulate or ban the commercial surrogacy industry were still murky.



“Even if they have a meeting and make a decision, it will be based on what?” she said. “We need to take care of the surrogate mothers; let [the pregnancies proceed] until they are finished, but the government must be responsible for them.”



Sopheap said the government should ban the practice altogether. Otherwise, she said: “I think the women will be exploited.”