PHNOM PENH, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Nearly six months after the Cambodian Health Ministry banned surrogate pregnancies, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has approved an exit strategy allowing babies born to Cambodian surrogates to leave the country, the Cambodia Daily reported on Monday.
Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state with the Interior Ministry, confirmed on Sunday that Hun Sen had signed off on the strategy, more than a month after it was put forward for his approval.
"Yes, he already dropped (it) back. He approved," Bun Eng was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The strategy will be a temporary measure allowing foreign parents to take their babies born to Cambodian surrogates out of the country, she said, adding that it will apply to babies already born and to unborn children being carried by Cambodian women.
Dozens of foreign couples have been left in legal limbo, uncertain when or if they might be united with their babies, since the government placed a ban on commercial surrogacy in October.
Bun Eng said the strategy would involve court procedures and cover only existing surrogacy cases.
"We put out this program addressing those who are currently pregnant and those who already gave birth," the Cambodia Daily quoted her as saying. "It is a solution for the cases that already exist."
She said parents would have limited time to use the exit strategy.
Bun Eng warned that parents who do not step forward to use the exit strategy would face serious consequences.
"If they try to hide, they have no rights to take the babies out," she said. "If they tell us, they have the rights, because we want this exit strategy to be able to allow them to take (babies) with them."
