Women rounded up for illegal surrogate service for Chinese people

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BANGKOK – Police rounded up many women for allegedly acting as surrogate mothers giving birth to children for Chinese people.



Raids happened at 10 locations this morning to stop the illegal service. Pol Maj Gen Torsak Sukwimol, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, led a team to a house on NakNiwat 37 Road. There they apprehended a Chinese man who was wanted under an arrest warrant for transnational crime and commercial surrogacy.

At a nearby house in the same housing estate police found eight young women and a 10-day-old baby. Seven women are surrogate mothers. One of them is eight-month pregnant. The other woman was there to prepare for surrogacy. Police also found an incubator there.

Pol Maj Gen Torsak said an illegal Chinese operator hired women to be surrogate mothers and arranged for their accommodations, checkups and birth deliveries.

“Police had investigated the case several months before the raids. It is a transnational criminal network,” he said.

Pol Maj Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, commander of the Anti-Human Trafficking Division, said the raided surrogate organization had operated since 2012. Women were hired 400,000-600,000 baht each for the service and would receive more if they gave birth to twins, he said.

The suppressed organization hired about 30 women in about five provinces, Pol Maj Gen Worawat said.