Bangkok: Several times customs officials noticed a man carrying a strange-looking case across the border from north-eastern Thailand to Laos, a known smuggling route.
When they confronted 25-year-old Nithinon Srithaniyanan and asked him to open the case they found six tubes of human semen in a nitrogen tank.
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Cambodia's surrogacy scandal
Inside this poor village in Cambodia, Melbourne nurse Tammy Davis-Charles illegally recruited commercial surrogates before she was jailed.
The discovery has refocused attention on a growing commercial surrogacy business in the Lao capital Vientiane, where there are no laws or regulations dealing with the practice that is outlawed in many countries.
Mr Nithinon, a Thai, told authorities he collected the sperm from four fertility clinics in Bangkok, revealing that surrogacy procedures are still being carried out in the city despite a ban imposed by Thailand's military government in the wake of the Baby Gammy scandal in 2014.
![Australian couples have been told commercial surrogacy is illegal in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Nepal and India](/web/20170427092022im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/l/i/s/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvq6c0.png/1492826950178.jpg)
Health officials raided at least one of the clinics on Friday, where workers denied any connection with Mr Nithinon.
Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn, deputy director of Thailand's Health Service Department, told reporters legal action would be taken against any Thai clinics trafficking human sperm, eggs and or embryos.
Mr Nithinon told authorities he had been paid to courier nitrogen tanks from Thailand to Laos 20 times and from Thailand to Cambodia 24 times since July last year.
He named a fertility clinic in Vientiane which reporters visited and found to be open and serving customers on Friday.
![Commercial surrogacy clinics have been moving around south-east Asia as governments ban the services.](/web/20170427092022im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/q/7/g/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvq6c0.png/1492826950178.jpg)
Cambodian authorities announced a crackdown on commercial surrogacy in its capital Phnom Penh in October when they arrested Australian nurse Tammy Davis-Charles. Ms Davis-Charles is in jail awaiting the outcome of her trial on charges relating to running a commercial surrogacy business and possession of fraudulent documents.
At least 70 Australian intending parents who had entered into arrangements with surrogacy operators in Phnom Penh faced the risk of being charged with human trafficking and difficulties taking their babies home.
Some of the Australians are believed to have taken the babies and surrogate mothers to Vietnam and Thailand where they applied for passports for the babies at Australian embassies.
But Cambodia's government has announced that foreign parents of babies born to surrogate mothers will have to go to court to prove paternity and ability to take care of the baby.
In the case of a married Cambodian surrogate mother her husband is considered to be the baby's father until proven otherwise in court.
The arrangements will only cover current pregnancies or babies already born. Other cases will be deemed to be human trafficking.
Cambodia is drafting new laws to deal with surrogacy.
Laos, one of the world's most corrupt nations, has limited neo-natal intensive care facilities. Some of the fertility clinics that have opened there were chased out of Thailand in 2014 and 2015.
The Australian government has warned its citizens that commercial surrogacy overseas is a complex and evolving area that raises significant legal and social issues. It warns Australians to consider all legal and other risks.
Going overseas to seek commercial surrogacy in illegal in several Australian states but the law is not enforced.
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