Authorities are investigating a human trafficking ring which saw Thai women held prisoner in Georgia and their ovum harvested, according to international media reports.
The three women were transported from Thailand under the guise of being surrogate mothers, according to ABC News.
One woman spoke to a press conference in Thailand in February, where she explained that she responded to a social media advertisement offering 25,000 baht (approx. NIS 2,711) a month and accommodation in exchange for surrogacy.
Journeying to the trafficking farm
The woman alleged she was trafficked by two Chinese nationals through Dubai and Armenia. Her passport was also allegedly confiscated from her, and she recounted that she was told she risked being arrested if she returned to Thailand.
"They took us to a house where there were 60 to 70 Thai women. The women there told us there was no (surrogacy) contracts or parents," she said. "[The women] would be injected to get treatment, anaesthetised, and their eggs would be extracted with a machine. After we got this information and it was not the same as the advertisement, we got scared, we tried to contact people back home."
The woman added that she acted sick to avoid having her ovum harvested.
The women who refused to give up their ovum were required to pay a ransom of up to 70,000 baht to secure their release, according to National Thailand.
While the three women have now returned to Thailand, the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for Children and Women warned that around 100 women remain prisoners.
The foundation has also demanded that Thai authorities engage with China to crack down on the trafficking ring, National Thailand.
Georgia's interior ministry confirmed four foreign nationals had been questioned as part of the investigation.
