In Cambodia, thirteen people from the Philippines were found guilty of human trafficking because they intended to sell the children they carried via surrogacy.
They were sentenced to four years in jail, but with two times suspended, the Kandal Provincial Court said.
The women’s mothers intended to have the children in exchange for money, which is a form of human trafficking, according to the court, who had powerful evidence to support this claim.
The judge did not specify what will happen to the children when they are born, and the people are never expected to serve any prison time until giving birth.
Surrogacy is unlawful in Cambodia, but authorities continue to offer the service.
Because surrogates are typically employed in their own countries and no transported abroad, this case was unexpected.
When authorities searched a villa close to the capital Phnom Penh on September 23 and found the girls, they were.
After their imprisonment, Nicholas Felix Ty, secretary in the Philippines Department of Justice, said it was the people themselves who were “victims of mortal trafficking”.
However, Chou Bun Eng, the interior minister of Cambodia, refrained from accepting the idea and claimed she thought the people were concerned.
Four Asian girls and seven Filipino women were also discovered, but they were not pregnant and have since been deported, according to Bun Eng.
A Thai woman was sentenced to two months and one day in jail for assisting the mothers by cooking their meals, according to the court.
Because of their lower prices, surrogacy is common in developing nations.
After being made illegal in neighboring Thailand, Cambodia’s commercial surrogacy market exploded in 2016.
Although banned afterwards that year by the Thai authorities, it continued to thrive.
The AFP news agency reported couples from China will pay agencies anywhere between$ 40, 000 ( £31, 600 ) and$ 100, 000 ( £79, 000 ) to arrange for a Cambodian woman to carry their child.
In 2017, an Australian nurse who ran a surrogacy clinic was jailed for 18 months in Cambodia.
The following year, 32 surrogate mothers charged with human trafficking in Cambodia were released on the condition they raised the children themselves.