The mother of baby Gammy, the little boy at the centre of one of Australia’s most notorious surrogacy cases, hasn’t seen her son in nearly two months because she’s been forced to flee loan sharks.
Pattaramon ‘Goy’ Chanbua claims that she and her husband have been threatened with violence unless they repay the 50,000 baht ($1893) loan they’d taken out to buy a pick-up truck.
Chanbua hoped the vehicle would help her husband, a painter by trade, establish a new and more lucrative career installing broadband and pay TV services.
“The interest is 10 per cent per month, we can’t afford to pay it,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “They have threatened me with bodily harm.”
Chanbua attracted worldwide headlines when she accused the Australian couple who had hired her as a surrogate of abandoning Gammy due to his down syndrome.
David and Wendy Farnell returned to Australia with Gammy’s twin sister, Pipah, leaving him behind in Thailand.
Chanbua then sued for custody of the little girl in April, amid controversy about David’s previous child sex convictions. However, the Family Court ruled that the little girl could remain with the pair under strict conditions, which include David not being alone with her.
It also determined the Western Australian couple did not abandon Gammy in Thailand.
Gammy (left) was left in Thailand, by the Farnells who chose only to take his sister (right). Images: Channel 9.
Australians donated generously to the Chanbuas in the wake of the story, and they were ultimately able to pay for a home in the city of Chonburi, two-and-a-half hours south-east of Bangkok.
It's there where Baby Gammy is currently being cared for by his grandmother. And it's there that it now seems he will remain for the foreseeable future.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Chanbua now plans to move to an industrial town about two hours from her home in an effort to find more work and pay off her debts.
She does not know how long it will take.
Top Comments
Gammy is biologically their child, how are they not having to pay child support each month for him at least?
Do they think his twin sister will thank them when she realises they separated her from him? She will feel it as a big loss as she grows older.
Well having spent a portion of my childhood living in a third world country I can definitely see why they're struggling financially (even after donations). It's a completely different world to Australia. Work is hard to come by. Corruption is rife. Fair working conditions are absent or very poor. Unions are suppressed by governments or bigger businesses. Wages are so low so you literally live pay check to pay check with little money for recreation. If you're uneducated it's even more difficult to succeed. Poverty cycles are hard to break and welfare payments are absent or insufficient for the cost of living. I think it's easy to judge if you've never lived like that or seen it first hand. I can't blame them for asking for more handouts.