Immigration operatives apprehend Pinay surrogate mothers in NAIA

Bureau of Immigration (BI) inspectors apprehended on New Year’s Day four women who admitted they were going abroad to become surrogate mothers for foreign clients for a fee.
The four women and their female recruiter were about to board a flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 on Sunday when they were offloaded by BI personnel, according to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente.
The four victims told the BI that after arriving in Bangkok they would proceed to Phnom Penh, from where they will be fetched by a Cambodian who arranged the deal with the foreigners who were supposed to father the babies they would bear.
The babies will be supposedly fathered by a German, a Nigerian, an Australian, and a Chinese, respectively.
The victims also revealed that another batch of women were scheduled to depart at the NAIA at an undisclosed date, pushing Morente to order BI inspectors to be doubly vigilant in screening Filipino tourists departing for Thailand and Cambodia.
A surrogate mother is defined as one who bears a child on behalf of another woman, either from her own egg fertilized by the other woman's partner, or from the implantation in her uterus of a fertilized egg from the other woman.
Each woman was reportedly promised a fee of US$8,700, US$200 of which will be paid after the first injection of the foreigner’s sperm into their uterus and US$500 will be added upon confirmation of the unborn child’s heartbeat.
The rest of the money, the victims said, will be paid in monthly installments during their pregnancy and until the baby is delivered and sent to the country of the child's father.
?“This is a new modus operandi of a human trafficking syndicate that preys on our Filipino women who are enticed to bear children of strangers for a fee because of their poverty. We cannot allow this to happen,” Morente said. —ALG/TJD, GMA News

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