Orphanage Trafficking Prevention and Protection Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4732 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4732

To expand the definition of ``severe forms of trafficking in persons'' 
  to include the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, or 
 receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or minors living in public or private 
            residential facilities, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 23, 2025

   Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Mfume, and Ms. Salazar) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To expand the definition of ``severe forms of trafficking in persons'' 
  to include the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, or 
 receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or minors living in public or private 
            residential facilities, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Orphanage Trafficking Prevention and 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Orphaned, abandoned, and children living in public or 
        private residential facilities, including institutions, 
        children's homes, orphanages, boarding schools, or group homes, 
        are among the populations most vulnerable to trafficking in 
        persons worldwide. According to the United States Department of 
        State, children without parental care are at significantly 
        higher risk of being trafficked for labor, sexual exploitation, 
        forced begging, and other illegal purposes.
            (2) An estimated 5,400,000 children live in institutional 
        care globally, many of whom are not true orphans but are 
        separated from their families due to poverty, disability, or 
        family breakdown.
            (3) Traffickers often target these children under the guise 
        of education, caregiving, or adoption.
            (4) The Department of State's 2024 Trafficking in Persons 
        Report notes that ``orphanage trafficking''--the recruitment of 
        children into residential care for the purpose of exploitation 
        and profit--occurs in multiple countries and is increasingly 
        linked to international travel, and volun-tourism.
            (5) The Department of State's 2019 and 2024 Trafficking in 
        Persons Reports have identified patterns in which children are 
        trafficked into orphanages to attract donations and 
        international volunteers, with reports of physical, emotional, 
        and sexual abuse in such institutions.
            (6) In some cases, children are fraudulently labeled as 
        orphans and trafficked through inter-country adoption channels, 
        undermining legitimate adoption systems and violating the 
        Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in 
        Respect of Intercountry Adoption, done at the Hague on May 29, 
        1993.
            (7) Despite these documented abuses, current United States 
        law does not explicitly recognize orphanage trafficking as a 
        severe form of trafficking in persons, which, accordingly, may 
        hinder efforts to prosecute perpetrators, protect victims, and 
        condition foreign assistance.
            (8) Clarifying that the trafficking of orphaned, abandoned, 
        or children living in public or private residential facilities, 
        including institutions, children's homes, orphanages, boarding 
        schools, or group homes, constitutes a severe form of 
        trafficking in persons under the Trafficking Victims Protection 
        Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) is necessary to protect 
        these children, enhance accountability, and strengthen United 
        States anti-trafficking efforts.

SEC. 3. MODIFICATION TO DEFINITION OF SEVERE FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN 
              PERSONS.

    Paragraph (11) of section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection 
Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``; or'' at the end 
        and inserting a semicolon;
            (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period at the end 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
            ``(C) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, 
        or receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or persons living in public 
        or private residential facilities who have not attained 18 
        years of age, by means of fraud, coercion, force, or abuse of a 
        position of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation and 
        profit, forced labor, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt 
        bondage, slavery, child labor, or sex trafficking.''.
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