Shortly before 24-year-old Lee left for China, her parents borrowed $300 from a lender in their village to buy a suitcase for their pregnant daughter and clothes for the baby she was expecting.
Her mother, Poch Leng, was anxious because she would not be by Lee’s side when she gave birth to the child she was carrying for a couple from mainland China.
But days before Lee’s flight in June, she was arrested in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. She was one of 32 pregnant women held for surrogacy, along with a Chinese broker suspected of coordinating the trade.
