Two sisters prosecuted for bringing people to China to be surrogate mothers

On September 23, Vinh City Police (Nghe An) announced that they had just prosecuted Uong Thi Trang (born 1989), residing in Hung Loc commune, Vinh city, and her younger sister Uong Thi Mai (born 1993), residing in Hong Linh town, Ha Tinh, for the crime of "Organizing and brokering for others"flee abroad" (according to Article 349, Penal Code 2015). Because Trang is raising a young child, she was released on bail and prohibited from leaving her place of residence; while Mai was temporarily detained for 3 months.

As previously reported, at around 00:00 on September 16 at the Eastern Bus Station, Vinh City, the Vinh City Police General Investigation Team coordinated with relevant units to catch Uong Thi Mai red-handed while Mai was taking a young woman residing in Binh Duong Province onto a passenger bus to Cao Bang to illegally cross the border to China for embryo implantation.

Two sisters Uong Thi Trang and Uong Thi Mai.

At the same time, an emergency search was conducted at Uong Thi Trang's residence and an emergency detention order was issued. Two mobile phones, five identity cards, two passports and many documents related to the act of illegally sending people abroad to serve as surrogate mothers in China were confiscated from the subjects.

Through investigation, it was determined that from February 2020 to present, this group of subjects has organized for more than 20 people to illegally cross the border to China.surrogacy

Accordingly, in 2019, Uong Thi Trang went to China to participate in a network of sending women to China to be surrogate mothers. After returning to Vietnam, Trang went on social networks such as Facebook, Zalo, Wechat... to create groups such as "Mth", "Surrogacy", "MTH7" and colluded with Uong Thi Mai to find and select healthy, unemployed women who needed money to send to China to be surrogate mothers.

Those who agree to be surrogates will be supported with health check-ups and travel by bus from their place of residence to Cao Bang province. Here, Trang colluded with others in the network to illegally bring these women across the border to China for embryo implantation, then return to Vietnam to care for the pregnancy. When the birth is near, the pregnant woman returns to China to wait for delivery. A successful surrogate is paid 330-350 million VND. Trang and her sisters each receive 20-30 million VND.

The case is currently being expanded.