Source Khmer Times
A long overdue law on surrogacy will finally be enacted this year since it was drafted in 2017. Banning surrogacy, which is already prohibited in Thailand, is aimed at ending a lucrative business that is linked to human trafficking targeting women from low-income families.
Last week, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Chinese national Liu Qiang and four Cambodian women under human trafficking laws over their involvement in commercial surrogacy. While Qiang was sentenced to seven years in prison for two counts of human trafficking, the four women were handed three to five years of imprisonment.
The case marks the latest association of surrogacy with human trafficking in the Kingdom as the draft law on surrogacy finally sees light this year since its inception on February 2017. As discussions on the draft law begin, several NGOs have expressed concern about the matter.