Cambodia has pardoned and sent home 13 Philippine women who were jailed over a scheme to become surrogate mothers, an outlawed practice, the Philippine government said on Sunday.
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They were among 24 foreign women detained by Cambodian police in September and convicted and sentenced to four years in prison on December 2 for attempted cross-border human trafficking.
The women “and three of their babies” were sent home to Manila early Sunday and taken to a government shelter for trafficking victims, the Social Welfare Department said in a statement.
Ten of the repatriated women are still pregnant, said Irene Dumlao, the Social Welfare Department’s Assistant Secretary.
“All 13 [women] departed Phnom Penh and arrived safely in Manila following the grant of royal pardon by His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni,” the Philippine foreign ministry said in a separate statement.
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The Cambodian court ruling had said it had strong evidence showing that the 13 had “the intention … to have babies to sell to a third person in exchange for money, which is an act of human trafficking”.