With the combined efforts of the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia and the IACAT, seven (7) women out of the 20 Filipino women arrested, who were not yet pregnant, were safely repatriated to the Philippines in October 2024 without facing any charges from the Cambodian Authorities.
With the on-going efforts of the IACAT to assist and protect victims of trafficking in persons, in November 2024, the IACAT sent a delegation to Cambodia to visit the 13 Filipino women. The delegation also held meetings with representatives from the Cambodian Authorities discussing the issue relating to the treatment of the said Filipino women under the Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons laws and under the Cambodian Laws. While both countries have differing views on the issue, the Philippines reiterated that under Philippines law, these Filipino women are recognized as victims of trafficking in persons and therefore exempt from the prosecution for crimes committed in connection with trafficking in persons. The Cambodian authorities, however, consider the participation of the Filipino women as indispensable in the illegal surrogacy scheme leading to the commission of trafficking in persons, and thus decided to enforce their domestic laws and policies against surrogacy to deter surrogacy practices among the Cambodian and foreign nationals.
The IACAT is deeply saddened by the two-year imprisonment sentence imposed on the 13 Filipino women. Nevertheless, we recognize Cambodia’s policy against surrogacy and its strong stand to protect children above all else from being sold. We also recognize the Cambodian government’s effort to lessen the effect of the penalties imposed by significantly reducing the sentences from the original 15–20 years of imprisonment to just two years.
In light of this incident, the IACAT underscores the importance of raising awareness and intensifying campaigns against schemes that exploit Filipino women by luring them into illegal surrogacy arrangements. We urge everyone to heed this pronouncement to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
The IACAT remains committed to working closely with the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia to provide continued assistance to the affected women and to explore additional remedies to address their situation. On-going investigation is being conducted by the Philippine law enforcement authority to file criminal charges against the recruiters responsible for trafficking of these women.
