The probe into the 24-year-old Japanese man who claims to be the father of nine surrogate babies is turning into a human trafficking investigation.
Dr Boonruang Trairuangworawat, director-general of the Department of Health Service Support (HSS), leads a team of health officials and police to inspect All IVF clinic, a fertility clinic, in Bangkok, only to find it abandoned. The clinic was ordered to close yesterday for violating the surrogacy regulations. Kosol Nakachol
Mitsutoki Shigeta fled the country early on Thursday morning on a Macau-bound flight following reports that he may have fathered three other babies. A source at the Immigration Bureau said the Japanese man passed through immigration at Suvarnabhumi airport about 1am on Thursday and boarded Air Macau flight NX0879.
Police were looking for Mr Shigeta to question him over the nine surrogate babies found on Tuesday at a Bangkok condominium along with nannies and another pregnant woman who admitted to be a surrogate.
Since 2012, he has visited Thailand 65 times and on several occasions he was spotted taking babies out of the country. The source said he also held a Cambodian passport.
A source close to the investigation said it is not unusual for a Japanese man to hold a Cambodian passport because Japanese investors in Cambodia are granted passports as a benefit.
The source said Mr Shigeta left Thailand for Cambodia on July 6 on Bangkok Airways flight PG933 with a child and returned on July 27 alone. He entered the country on March 25 via Cambodia alone and left shortly for Cambodia with a child.
The source said police are also looking to question a Japanese woman identified as Ohno Yuki who was said to stay at the condominium where the babies were found. She reportedly works for Mr Shigeta.
Mr Shigeta was identified by his lawyer, Ratthaprathan Tulathorn, as the father of all nine surrogate babies. Police want to conduct DNA tests to verify the paternity claim and make sure there is no other hidden agenda in the surrogacy arrangements.
The discovery of the nine babies is fuelling suspicions about the surrogacy business being exploited by human traffickers. The babies, six boys and three girls, aged from two weeks to two years, reportedly look very different. They have been sent to Pakkred Babies' Home in Nonthaburi province.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Aek Angsananont said Mr Ratthaprathan has told police his client is the father of 14 babies and three of them have been sent to Japan.
He said police are tracking down the surrogate mothers for questioning after police identified some of them from hospital documents.
Thai authorities are trying to verify the identity of the Japanese man in question since they have found there are many Japanese men going by the same name.
Superintendent of the Children and Women Protection Sub-Division, Pol Col Napanwut Liamsanguan, said police are looking into a report the Japanese man has fathered another three children who were allegedly taken out of the country.
He said Mr Shigeta's lawyer has yet to submit the birth certificates of the babies to police for verification.
Pol Col Napanwut's remarks came after health authorities yesterday closed a fertility clinic on Ploenchit road which was identified as the provider of surrogacy services by a pregnant woman who was found along with the nine babies.
Boonruang Trairuangworawat, chief of the Department of Health Service Support, said All IVF clinic was shut down because it provided surrogacy services without a licence from the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and broke the regulation governing surrogacy.
It was inspected last week in the wake of the baby Gammy case and was found to have provided the "wrong type of services". The closure order came after the management of the clinic continued to provide the service.
According to the health authorities, All IVF clinic, located at the Sivatel Bangkok hotel, occupied rooms on the 12th and the 15th floors of the hotel. One floor housed a clinic which was legally registered, while the other housed an illegal one.
Since it opened three years ago, the clinic was believed to have provided assisted reproductive services to more than 100 people.
However, when the authorities arrived, they found the premises had been abandoned.
Police said the operator of the clinic was apparently tipped off by the surrogacy scandal. No details about the clinic's operator were revealed.
Shigeki Kobayashi, from the Embassy of Japan, said yesterday he was concerned about the issue but could not make any comments at this time.
He said the embassy has not yet received any official information from the Thai government or the Royal Thai Police about the case. He learned about the issue from the local media, he said.
Meanwhile, director-general of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, Yanee Lertkrai, said yesterday DNA samples have been collected from the nine babies for testing. She said the department has received calls from people who claim to be relatives of the children. However, the process of verifying the babies is not yet complete.
Wichian Chaowalit, permanent secretary for Social Development and Human Security, said yesterday police will have to establish if the surrogate mothers and surrogacy agencies are aware the children were destined for human trafficking.
He said if the surrogates and the clinics knew from the start they are more likely to face charges under the anti-human trafficking law.
Passport photo of Shigeta Mitsutoki, the Japanese man who claims to have fathered nine surrogate babies. He left the country early Thursday morning, less than two days after the babies were found.