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Thai officials are making transitional arrangements to protect people caught up in its commercial surrogacy crackdown as 10 Australian families with 14 children face lengthy delays before being cleared to depart.
Thailand is under pressure to put the arrangements in place quickly to ease the court clearance process which could take up to six months.
Thailand’s junta has pledged leniency in the cases of babies born to surrogate mothers.
The Thai prime minister, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, expressed concern that some surrogate mothers, fearing possible legal consequences, may cut contact with medical facilities and access to proper medical care.
“At present, the laws are not clear-cut,” Prayuth was reported as saying. “We are going to handle this on a case-by-case basis, based on the evidence.
“The clinics that hired them or asked them to do it have been closed, so it is dangerous for the babies.”
Health authorities have moved to reassure surrogate mothers and private hospitals about the proposed legislation after reports of surrogates being moved to public hospitals due to fears of prosecution.
The new laws will ban commercial surrogacy and associated advertising promotions, with a 10-year jail term for anyone found guilty of involvement in the trade.
Thailand’s murky surrogacy industry has come under intense scrutiny after recent accusations that an Australian couple abandoned a baby born with Down’s syndrome, but took his healthy twin sister.
The couple has denied deliberately leaving the boy, called Gammy, with the surrogate mother, who was paid about $15,000 to carry the twins.
Questions have been raised over the suitability of Gammy’s father, David Farnell, for surrogacy after it emerged he was jailed in 1997 for indecently dealing with three girls.
One of Farnell’s victims, using the pseudonym Sarah, has spoken about the impact of the offences.
“The damage is done and it can take years to repair,” she told the West Australian. “It’s my belief he should not have any children – not just him, all paedophiles.
“We need to stop putting these perpetrators first ... because there are so many innocent babies and children that are abused day in, day out.”
In a separate case, police believe a Japanese man fathered at least 15 babies with surrogate mothers for unknown motives.
In the past year about 200 Australians have sought the services of Thai surrogate mothers, often through clinics promoted online.
There are an estimated 150 Thai surrogates to Australian couples who are caught up by the legal changes that will require a court clearance before the foreign couples are allowed to leave Thailand.
Officials say the Australian families face sharply higher costs because of the delays, including accommodation as well as Thai and Australian legal fees.
Analysis of commercial surrogacy in Thailand has put the costs as high as $A44,000 in overall fees.
Earlier this month, a gay Australian couple was stopped from leaving Thailand with a baby because their documents were incomplete.
Thai immigration officials say they cannot disclose how many couples have been prevented from leaving Thailand with babies born to surrogates because they do not keep records.
Commercial surrogacy is officially banned by Thailand’s Medical Council, but until recently even top fertility clinics were believed to offer the service.
In the past few weeks a number of fertility clinics have been raided and some have been closed.
Agence France-Presse and AAP contributed to this report
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