A 31-YEAR-OLD Filipino woman who was promised $5,000 to carry a child for a Cypriot couple has been sent back to her country with only $1,000.
The woman, whose visa documents showed she came to Cyprus to work as a housemaid, claimed she was forced into agreeing to bear the couple’s child and that she was threatened and made to leave the island fearing for her life.
According to Politis, the woman’s half-sister, who lives permanently in Cyprus brought the 31-year-old to the island through a Cypriot agent on the pretext that she would work as a housemaid at a Strovolos house for four years.
Meanwhile, the woman’s half-sister convinced her to become the surrogate mother for the Cypriot couple, who had promised to employ her in exchange for the $5,000 that she was told she would receive in full, regardless of whether she would be able to fall pregnant and give birth.
The 31-year-old alleges she was forced to agree to this in order to pay off a debt to her half-sister.
“My half-sister told me to come to Cyprus and have another woman’s baby and she would give me $5,000. Whether I would give birth or not, they promised $5,000. In the end they gave me $1,000,” the 31-year-old was quoted as saying.
The woman arrived in Cyprus in October and upon entry to her employers’ house was not allowed to go out – not even on Sundays.
Her salary as a live-in housemaid was sent directly to her half-sister, as payment for the money she owed her. The only occasion when she would go outside was for a doctor’s appointment, where she was accompanied by the Cypriot couple.
According to her statement to Politis, the couple took her to two doctors in Nicosia, one of whom was female. Both doctors attempted to implant the couple’s sperm and ovaries in the 31-year-old’s womb, without success.
Seeing that the 31-year-old had not fallen pregnant, the couple decided to send her back to the country, but refused to give her the $5,000 they promised her. Following a heated argument and when a third person told the 31-year-old she should report the matter to police, the couple gave her $1,000.
“When my employer found out that I was not pregnant and I told her I wanted to get paid she told me to go to hell.
“She spoke to me very badly and I cannot repeat the bad words she used,” the 31-year-old was quoted as saying.
The woman was taken by her employer and half-sister to the airport and is presently in the Philippines. However, she wanted to make the case known to prevent other women from getting victimised. According to the 31-year-old, it was not the first time that her half-sister brought women from the Philippines to become surrogate mothers in Cyprus.
“I heard that after I left they were going to bring another girl from the Philippines so that she would have a couple’s baby. The agent who brought me to Cyprus is most probably aware of this.
“He does not have a licence and he is the only one who works with my half-sister,”
Although the 31-year-old’s case may be shocking, the absence of a legal framework on surrogacy in Cyprus creates a grey area that would make prosecution more difficult.
Although the House Health Committee has expressed the need to discuss the issue and draft a bill, the Ministry of Health has been stalling the process for years.
“DISY MP Sotiris Sampson had submitted a bill four years ago, but when the discussion started the Bioethics Committee intervened raising a number of issues. The Health Ministry pledged to submit its own bill but has been fooling us for at least three years.
“Each time we ask to discuss the issue at committee the Ministry asks for more time extension. This has lead us to give them a final deadline just before parliament closes for the Euro elections and the matter was left there,’ explained Eleni Theocharous, DISY MP.
The National Committee on Bioethics of Cyprus has already issued an opinion on the matter, to help the Health Ministry prepare the relevant bill. The majority of the committee’s members, including its president Rena Vrahimi-Petridou support the prohibition of surrogacy in Cyprus for ethical reasons.
“The use of a surrogate mother conflicts with the principle of human freedom. A new kind of slavery and commercialisation of human beings is created.
“Perhaps motives are given to people who are financially disadvantaged to offer services for payment by bringing a child to the world. Thus, there is a danger of creating a different kind of exploitation of women,” the committee’s opinion read.
