Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Cambodia news in English! Here you'll find all the breaking news from Cambodia translated into English for our international readership and expat community to read and comment on. The majority of our news stories are gathered from the local Khmer newspapers, but we also bring you newsworthy media from Cambodia before you read them anywhere else. Because of the huge population of the capital city, most articles are from Phnom Penh, but Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Kampot often make the headlines as well. We report on all arrests and deaths of foreigners in Cambodia, and the details often come from the Cambodian police or local Khmer journalists. As an ASEAN news outlet, we also publish regional news and events from our neighboring countries. We also share local Khmer news stories that you won't find in English anywhere else. If you're looking for a certain article, you may use our site's search feature to find it quickly.
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Cambodia tells Australians awaiting surrogate babies: come forward or face prosecution
December 11 2016 - 12:37PM
Phnom Penh: Cambodia has told dozens of Australians they must declare they are the biological parents of babies being carried by surrogate mothers or risk being treated as suspects in human trafficking.

The warning came after a Cambodian surrogate mother gave birth to a baby who no intending parents turned up to collect, following a police crackdown on about 50 surrogacy brokers and clinics in the country's capital.

Not one of more than 70 Australian parents who have entered into surrogacy arrangements in Cambodia has so far declared themselves to Cambodian authorities.

The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh has granted Australian passports to five babies born through agreements brokered by Australian nurse Tammy Davis-Charles, mainly on the basis of DNA tests linking parents to the baby.

But none of the information relating to the applications has been passed on to Cambodian authorities, straining diplomatic ties between the two countries, Cambodian officials say.
"We are asking for collaboration from the Australian embassy or government," Ms Bun Eng said. "This is all new in my country. We need to know what is going on."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/cambodia-te ... t6ki9.html
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

There has been an announcement on Facebook by the Minister of Information:
Surrogacy Law to be Drafted
Wednesday, 14 December 2016
The government has appointed the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to draft a law to crack down on illegal activity surrounding the recently banned commercial surrogacy industry in Cambodia.
Ministry spokeswoman Kheng Sam Vada confirmed the news, which was originally announced by government spokesperson and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith in a brief Facebook post.

Chou Bun Eng, a secretary of state at the Interior Ministry as well as the vice-chairwoman of the government’s committee to fight human trafficking, said the pending legislature is intended to crack down on crimes arising from commercial surrogacy, but stopped short of providing any details on the law.

“We only just started working on it now. So we will see whether it is beneficial and define what is considered a crime,” Ms. Bun Eng said.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33120/ ... e-drafted/
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Surrogates Seized in Philippines
by Ben Sokhean | January 4, 2017

Four Filipina women believed to be headed to Cambodia to become surrogate mothers, despite the practice being banned since November, were reportedly intercepted by immigration officials as they attempted to board a flight in Manila.

According to media reports on Tuesday, the five women were set to begin the first leg of their journey to Bangkok when they were blocked by agents from the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration. Philippine Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the women were to be paid about $10,000 each by foreign clients to carry their children.

“This is a new modus operandi of a human trafficking syndicate that preys on our Filipina women who are enticed to bear children of strangers for a fee because of their poverty,” he said, according to Philippine newspaper Sunstar.

The women told officials they were to meet a Cambodian broker in Phnom Penh who had prearranged deals with couples from Germany, Nigeria, Australia and China. Philippine authorities were also informed of a second group expected to depart for Cambodia...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/surr ... es-122916/

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local- ... dia-518038
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
IraHayes
Expatriate
Posts: 2676
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 7:38 am
Reputation: 2030
Marshall Islands

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by IraHayes »

CEOCambodiaNews wrote:There has been an announcement on Facebook by the Minister of Information:
Surrogacy Law to be Drafted
Wednesday, 14 December 2016


"We only just started working on it now. So we will see whether it is beneficial and define what is considered a crime,” Ms. Bun Eng said.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33120/ ... e-drafted/
More like they haven't worked out how much they can extort from the people involved!
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

The surrogacy traffic continues as Asian countries gradually tighten laws:

Cambodia-bound surrogates stopped
Four women on their way to Phnom Penh have been detained at Manila’s international airport for being prospective surrogate mothers, which could indicate that the practice is still operational in Cambodia despite the government banning it last year.

According to the Dubai-based Gulf News, the four women from the Philippines, along with a Philippine recruiter, were arrested on Tuesday as they were headed to Cambodia via Bangkok.
Upon their arrival in Phnom Penh, Gulf News reported that they were to be picked up by a Cambodian “who made an arrangement with foreigners to father the babies.”
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33926/ ... s-stopped/

No laws regulating surrogacy in the Philippines (yet).
The Filipino connection illustrates the flexibility of international surrogacy agents who operate across multiple borders, flying surrogates, eggs, doctors and parents to whichever country is the most porous for their business.

The operators look for poor, lightly regulated countries that don't have laws dealing directly with surrogacy, such as Cambodia.

There are no laws governing surrogacy in the Philippines where, in the first known surrogacy case in 2008, a baby boy was born in an arrangement between a gay male couple from Malaysia and Denmark and a married Filipino woman.
Sydney Morning Herald
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

A surrogacy company who has terminated an agreement with the intended parents has also cast off the Cambodian surrogate mother, refusing to pay for her pregnancy care because of a dispute with their customers. Due to the lack of regulations covering surrogacy in Cambodia, the surrogacy companies have no legal accountability toward Cambodian surrogate mothers in case of a contract termination.

Surrogacy agency tears up contract with couple
Fri, 20 January 2017
Cristina Maza and Kong Meta

Commercial surrogacy agency New Life Global Network has severed ties with Dutch intended parents Johan and Pieter* after the Post reported on their experience with a Cambodian surrogate mother.

New Life claims the couple broke their contract’s confidentiality clause by passing reporters information about their correspondence with the agency.

“New Life Global Network LLP unilaterally terminates the agreement with the immediate effect. Along with that let me inform you that, translators refused to communicate with you and your surrogate mother, as well as hospitals refuse to provide you with pregnancy care and delivery service,” reads an email from New Life seen by the Post.

The original story described how the couple located their surrogate mother after the agency refused to put them in touch with her, and what the couple felt were increasingly suspicious communications with the agency after Cambodia’s Ministry of Health issued a prakas banning the industry in October.

Cambodia does not have a law regulating commercial surrogacy, but the government has said it plans to draft a law banning it this year. The article cited emails from New Life demonstrating the agency was actively hiding its work in the Kingdom in the wake of the prakas.

The couple’s contract with the agency, which was drawn up in Tbilisi, Georgia, last May, states that any information submitted by the parties to each other cannot be transferred to a third party without prior consent.

The couple claims the agency misled them about the legality of surrogacy in Cambodia.

Their surrogate confirmed she was contacted by New Life and informed that the agency would no longer speak with her or provide scheduled checkups.“I’m very worried now, because they said that they won’t let Central Hospital treat me,” she said, referring to the hospital where she had been getting her scans.

Johan and Pieter, however, said that they will cover all of the mother’s expenses.

New Life founder Mariam Kukunashvili said in an email she saw nothing wrong with pulling the plug on the agreement...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/s ... act-couple
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
kiwiincambodia
Expatriate
Posts: 4267
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 1:06 pm
Reputation: 471
Korea North

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by kiwiincambodia »

Surrogates Identified, Summoned to Court as Parents Left in Limbo

by Phan Soumy and Sonia Kohlbacher | February 3, 2017

Cambodian women identified as surrogate mothers hired by a jailed Australian nurse have been summoned to testify against their employer in court, but have failed to turn up partly out of fear of what might happen, according to a judge.

Ros Piseth, an investigating judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said on Tuesday the women had been summoned for questioning in an ongoing investigation into surrogacy broker Tammy Davis-Charles, who was charged in November for her role in connecting surrogate mothers with foreign parents.

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/surr ... bo-124523/
Anchor Moy
Expatriate
Posts: 13458
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 11:37 pm
Reputation: 3974
Tokelau

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by Anchor Moy »

Judge grills agent of surrogacy
Thu, 9 February 2017 / Kong Meta and Cristina Maza

Tammy Davis-Charles, the Australian national arrested in November for running a commercial surrogacy business in Cambodia, was questioned in court yesterday in a case that will determine whether surrogacy agents can get prison sentences despite the Kingdom’s lack of regulations for the industry.

Davis-Charles is being charged under Article 332 of the Penal Code, which prohibits acting as an intermediary between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman. She is also charged with possession of fraudulent documents and could face up to two years in prison.

Surrogate mothers recruited by Davis-Charles have also been summonsed to testify, but so far none have appeared, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s Sous Vichearandy. Investigating judge Ros Piseth seized Davis-Charles’s phone and is searching its contacts for information about the women...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/j ... -surrogacy
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

It is reported here that surrogacy in Cambodia is to become legal, but for the moment, this has yet to confirmed from other sources. The present information is that the possibility of a law on surrogacy is under discussion, and that a foreign ministry spokesman has made an announcement that a law is being prepared. Anyone concerned with Cambodian surrogacy laws would be advised to wait and see how talks on the subject progress.

Surrogacy to be legal
Ros Chanveasna 10 February 2017

Authorities are preparing a draft law to make surrogacy legal with a range of protections for the women and babies involved.
News of the move emerged yesterday after a meeting between Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and newly appointed United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative to Cambodia Lene Kroll Christiansen.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said Mr. Sokhonn told Ms. Christiansen about the surrogacy development.

“Cambodian government relevant institutes are preparing to draft a new law to make surrogacy legal in order to control and prevent Cambodian children who are born via surrogacy from becoming victims,” Mr. Sounry said.

Sok Somoni, a cabinet chief in the Women’s Affairs Ministry, confirmed that discussions about surrogacy were taking place, but declined to say more.

Ros Socheap, the executive director of Gender and Development for Cambodia NGO, said: “I don’t see any benefit for surrogate mothers.
“My personal opinion is that this law will not benefit Cambodian women who are hired to be surrogates by other people, especially rich people...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/35333/ ... -be-legal/
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Australian nurse arrested under new surrogacy laws.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Another pathetic article on a surrogate parent caught in limbo by the Cambodian authorities' crackdown.
But under the pathos of this story, the whole thing comes down to a commercial transaction. Chinese guy needs kids to keep his parents happy, buys them online, then there's a problem with the delivery...

Surrogacy Ban Separates Sons, Devastated Dad
James, who has invested more than $40,000 in his quest for children, said his decision to engage a Cambodian surrogate mother and an egg donor from Georgia, a country straddling Eastern Europe and Asia, was not made easily.
“Most of my friends, real friends, and colleagues know I’m gay, but my parents, they don’t,” he said by telephone last week.

“They always tell me that ‘You need to have [a] baby because you are getting old and you need your baby to support you…. Otherwise you’ll end up living a very miserable life when you get old.’ That is a Chinese tradition,” he said.

Surrogacy, he decided, was his best option. Two years ago, he searched online for a surrogacy agent that did not discriminate against same-sex or single parents.
He found one in Georgia, which arranged for a surrogate in Cambodia.
“There are some cases of failure, but I got success in the first installation, so I was very lucky. It was so exciting to know that I was going to have a baby. Moreover, I’m going to have a baby boy,” James said.

“In China, even though I don’t have a bias as to whether it is a boy or a girl, for my parents, they [believe] boys are much better than girls, so after I knew it was baby boys, it was just so exciting.”

But by the time James and his mother flew to Phnom Penh for the birth of his boys, authorities had begun to crack down on the sector, charging Australian nurse and Bangkok-based agent Tammy Davis-Charles and two Cambodian associates for their role in connecting surrogate mothers with foreign parents...

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/surr ... ad-125229/
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post