[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1238 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1238

  To combat the crime of international trafficking and to protect the 
                           rights of victims.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 23, 1999

Ms. Slaughter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee 
  on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To combat the crime of international trafficking and to protect the 
                           rights of victims.

    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 ``International Trafficking of Women 
and Children Victim Protection Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The worldwide trafficking of persons has a 
        disproportionate impact on women and girls and has been and 
        continues to be condemned by the international community as a 
        violation of fundamental human rights.
            (2) The fastest growing international trafficking business 
        is the trade in women, whereby women and girls seeking a better 
        life, a good marriage, or a lucrative job abroad, unexpectedly 
        find themselves in situations of forced prostitution, sweatshop 
        labor, exploitative domestic servitude, or battering and 
        extreme cruelty.
            (3) Trafficked women and children, girls and boys, are 
        often subjected to rape and other forms of sexual abuse by 
        their traffickers and often held as virtual prisoners by their 
        exploiters, made to work in slavery-like conditions, in debt 
        bondage without pay and against their will.
            (4) The President, the First Lady, the Secretary of State, 
        the President's Interagency Council on Women, and the Agency 
        for International Development have all identified trafficking 
        in women as a significant problem.
            (5) The Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 
        Conference) called on all governments to take measures, 
        including legislative measures, to provide better protection of 
        the rights of women and girls in trafficking, to address the 
        root factors that put women and girls at risk to traffickers, 
        and to take measures to dismantle the national, regional, and 
        international networks on trafficking.
            (6) The United Nations General Assembly, noting its concern 
        about the increasing number of women and girls who are being 
        victimized by traffickers, passed a resolution in 1998 calling 
        upon all governments to criminalize trafficking in women and 
        girls in all its forms and to penalize all those offenders 
        involved, while ensuring that the victims of these practices 
        are not penalized.
            (7) Numerous treaties to which the United States is a party 
        address government obligations to combat trafficking, including 
        such treaties as the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the 
        Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and 
        Practices Similar to Slavery, which calls for the complete 
        abolition of debt bondage and servile forms of marriage, and 
        the 1957 Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, which undertakes 
        to suppress and requires signatories not to make use of any 
        forced or compulsory labor.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are to condemn and combat the 
international crime of trafficking in women and children and to assist 
the victims of this crime by--
            (1) setting a standard by which governments are evaluated 
        for their response to trafficking and their treatment of 
        victims;
            (2) authorizing and funding an interagency task force to 
        carry out such evaluations and to issue an annual report of its 
        findings to include the identification of foreign governments 
        that tolerate or participate in trafficking and fail to 
        cooperate with international efforts to prosecute perpetrators;
            (3) assisting trafficking victims in the United States by 
        providing humanitarian assistance and by providing them 
        temporary nonimmigrant status in the United States;
            (4) assisting trafficking victims abroad by providing 
        humanitarian assistance; and
            (5) denying certain forms of United States foreign 
        assistance to those governments which tolerate or participate 
        in trafficking, abuse victims, and fail to cooperate with 
        international efforts to prosecute perpetrators.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Police assistance.--The term ``police assistance''--
                    (A) means--
                            (i) assistance of any kind, whether in the 
                        form of grant, loan, training, or otherwise, 
                        provided to or for foreign law enforcement 
                        officials, foreign customs officials, or 
                        foreign immigration officials;
                            (ii) government-to-government sales of any 
                        item to or for foreign law enforcement 
                        officials, foreign customs officials, or 
                        foreign immigration officials; and
                            (iii) any license for the export of an item 
                        sold under contract to or for the officials 
                        described in clause (i); and
                    (B) does not include assistance furnished under 
                section 534 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 
                U.S.C. 2346c; relating to the administration of 
                justice) or any other assistance under that Act to 
                promote respect for internationally recognized human 
                rights.
            (2) Trafficking.--The term ``trafficking'' means the use of 
        deception, coercion, debt bondage, the threat of force, or the 
        abuse of authority to recruit, transport within or across 
        borders, purchase, sell, transfer, receive, or harbor a person 
        for the purpose of placing or holding such person, whether for 
        pay or not, in involuntary servitude, or slavery or slavery-
        like conditions, or in forced, bonded, or coerced labor.
            (3) Victim of trafficking.--The term ``victim of 
        trafficking'' means any person subjected to the treatment 
        described in paragraph (2).

SEC. 5. INTER-AGENCY TASK FORCE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING.

    (a) Establishment.--
            (1) In general.--There is established within the Department 
        of State in the Office of the Secretary of State an Inter-
        Agency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (in this 
        section referred to as the ``Task Force''). The Task Force 
        shall be co-chaired by the Assistant Secretary of State for 
        Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Affairs and the Senior 
        Coordinator on International Women's Issues, President's 
        Interagency Council on Women.
            (2) Appointment of members.--The members of the Task Force 
        shall be appointed by the Secretary of State. The Task Force 
        shall consist of no more than twelve members.
            (3) Composition.--The Task Force shall include 
        representatives from the--
                    (A) Violence Against Women Office, Office of 
                Justice Programs, Department of Justice;
                    (B) Office of Women in Development, United States 
                Agency for International Development; and
                    (C) Bureau of International Narcotics and Law 
                Enforcement Affairs, Department of State.
            (4) Staff.--The Task Force shall be authorized to retain up 
        to five staff members within the Bureau of Democracy, Human 
        Rights, and Labor Affairs, and the President's Interagency 
        Council on Women to prepare the annual report described in 
        subsection (b) and to carry out additional tasks which the Task 
        Force may require. The Task Force shall regularly hold meetings 
        on its activities with nongovernmental organizations.
    (b) Annual Report to Congress.--Not later than March 1 of each 
year, the Secretary of State, with the assistance of the Task Force, 
shall submit a report to Congress describing the status of 
international trafficking, including--
            (1) a list of foreign states where trafficking originates, 
        passes through, or is a destination; and
            (2) an assessment of the efforts by the governments 
        described in paragraph (1) to combat trafficking. Such an 
        assessment shall address--
                    (A) whether any governmental authorities tolerate 
                or are involved in trafficking activities;
                    (B) which governmental authorities are involved in 
                anti-trafficking activities;
                    (C) what steps the government has taken toward 
                ending the participation of its officials in 
                trafficking;
                    (D) what steps the government has taken to 
                prosecute and investigate those officials found to be 
                involved in trafficking;
                    (E) what steps the government has taken to prohibit 
                other individuals from participating in trafficking, 
                including the investigation, prosecution, and 
                conviction of individuals involved in trafficking, the 
                criminal and civil penalties for trafficking, and the 
                efficacy of those penalties on reducing or ending 
                trafficking;
                    (F) what steps the government has taken to assist 
                trafficking victims, including efforts to prevent 
                victims from being further victimized by police, 
                traffickers, or others, grants of stays of deportation, 
                and provision of humanitarian relief, including 
                provision of mental and physical health care and 
                shelter;
                    (G) whether the government is cooperating with 
                governments of other countries to extradite traffickers 
                when requested;
                    (H) whether the government is assisting in 
                international investigations of transnational 
                trafficking networks; and
                    (I) whether the government--
                            (i) refrains from prosecuting trafficking 
                        victims or refrains from other discriminatory 
                        treatment towards trafficking victims due to 
                        such victims having been trafficked, or the 
                        nature of their work, or their having left the 
                        country illegally; and
                            (ii) recognizes the rights of victims and 
                        ensures their access to justice.
    (c) Reporting Standards and Investigations.--
            (1) Responsibility of the secretary of state.--The 
        Secretary of State shall ensure that United States missions 
        abroad maintain a consistent reporting standard and thoroughly 
        investigate reports of trafficking.
            (2) Contacts with nongovernmental organizations.--In 
        compiling data and assessing trafficking for the Human Rights 
Report and the Inter-Agency Task Force to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking Annual Report, United States mission personnel shall seek 
out and maintain contacts with human rights and other nongovernmental 
organizations, including receiving reports and updates from such 
organizations, and, when appropriate, investigating such reports.

SEC. 6. INELIGIBILITY FOR POLICE ASSISTANCE.

    (a) Ineligibility.--Except as provided in subsection (b), any 
foreign government country identified in the latest report submitted 
under section 5 as a government that--
            (1) has failed to take effective action towards ending the 
        participation of its officials in trafficking; and
            (2) has failed to investigate and prosecute meaningfully 
        those officials found to be involved in trafficking,
shall not be eligible for police assistance.
    (b) Waiver of Ineligibility.--The President may waive the 
application of subsection (a) to a foreign country if the President 
determines and certifies to Congress that the provision of police 
assistance to the country is in the national interest of the United 
States.

SEC. 7. PROTECTION OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS.

    (a) Nonimmigrant Classification for Trafficking Victims.--Section 
101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1101(a)(15)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``or'' at the end of subparagraph (R);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (S) 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(T) an alien who the Attorney General 
                determines--
                            ``(i) is physically present in the United 
                        States, and
                            ``(ii) is or has been a trafficking victim 
                        (as defined in section 4 of the International 
                        Trafficking of Women and Children Victim 
                        Protection Act of 1999),
                for a stay of not to exceed 3 months in the United 
                States, except that any such alien who has filed a 
                petition seeking asylum or who is pursuing civil or 
                criminal action against traffickers shall have the 
                alien's status extended until the petition or 
                litigation reaches its conclusion.''.
    (b) Waiver of Grounds for Ineligibility for Admission.--Section 
212(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)) is 
amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(d)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) The Attorney General shall, in the Attorney General's 
        discretion, waive the application of subsection (a) (other than 
        paragraph (3)(E)) in the case of a nonimmigrant described in 
        section 101(a)(15)(T), if the Attorney General considers it to 
        be in the national interest to do so.''.
    (c) Involuntary Servitude.--Section 1584 of title 18, United States 
Code, is amended--
            (1) inserting ``(a)'' before ``Whoever'';
            (2) by striking ``or'' after ``servitude'';
            (3) by inserting ``transfers, receives or harbors any 
        person into involuntary servitude, or'' after ``servitude,''; 
        and
            (4) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) In this section, the term `involuntary servitude' includes 
trafficking, slavery-like practices in which persons are forced into 
labor through non-physical means, such as debt bondage, blackmail, 
fraud, deceit, isolation, and psychological pressure.''.
    (d) Trafficking Victim Regulations.--Not later than 180 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General and the 
Secretary of State shall jointly promulgate regulations for law 
enforcement personnel, immigration officials, and Foreign Service 
officers requiring that--
            (1) Federal, State and local law enforcement, immigration 
        officials, and Foreign Service officers shall be trained in 
        identifying and responding to trafficking victims;
            (2) trafficking victims shall not be jailed, fined, or 
        otherwise penalized due to having been trafficked, or nature of 
        work;
            (3) trafficking victims shall have access to legal 
        assistance, information about their rights, and translation 
        services;
            (4) trafficking victims shall be provided protection if, 
        after an assessment of security risk, it is determined the 
        trafficking victim is susceptible to further victimization; and
            (5) prosecutors shall take into consideration the safety 
        and integrity of trafficked persons in investigating and 
        prosecuting traffickers.

SEC. 8. ASSISTANCE TO TRAFFICKING VICTIMS.

    (a) In the United States.--The Secretary of Health and Human 
Services is authorized to provide, through the Office of Refugee 
Resettlement, assistance to trafficking victims and their children in 
the United States, including mental and physical health services, and 
shelter.
    (b) In Other Countries.--The President, acting through the 
Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
Development, is authorized to provide programs and activities to assist 
trafficking victims and their children abroad, including provision of 
mental and physical health services, and shelter. Such assistance 
should give special priority to programs by nongovernmental 
organizations which provide direct services and resources for 
trafficking victims.

SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) Authorization of Appropriations for the Inter-Agency Task 
Force.--To carry out the purposes of section 5, there are authorized to 
be appropriated to the Secretary of State $2,000,000 for fiscal year 
2000 and $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2001.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations to the Secretary of HHS.--To 
carry out the purposes of section 8(a), there are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary of Health and Human Services $20,000,000 
for fiscal year 2000 and $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2001.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations to the President.--To carry out 
the purposes of section 8(b), there are authorized to be appropriated 
to the President $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2000 and $20,000,000 for 
fiscal year 2001.
    (d) Prohibition.--Funds made available to carry out this Act shall 
not be available for the procurement of weapons or ammunition.
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