(1) Orphaned, abandoned, and children living in 
public or private residential facilities, including insti-
tutions, 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 signifi-
cantly higher risk of being trafficked for labor, sex-
ual exploitation, forced begging, and other illegal 
purposes. 
(2) An estimated 5,400,000 children live in in-
stitutional 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 adop-
tion. 
(4) The Department of State’s 2024 Traf-
ficking in Persons Report notes that ‘‘orphanage 
trafficking’’—the recruitment of children into resi-
dential care for the purpose of exploitation and prof-
it—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 pat-
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terns in which children are trafficked into orphan-
ages to attract donations and international volun-
teers, with reports of physical, emotional, and sexual 
abuse in such institutions. 
(6) In some cases, children are fraudulently la-
beled as orphans and trafficked through inter-coun-
try adoption channels, undermining legitimate adop-
tion systems and violating the Convention on Protec-
tion 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 or-
phanage trafficking as a severe form of trafficking 
in persons, which, accordingly, may hinder efforts to 
prosecute perpetrators, protect victims, and condi-
tion 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, 
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and strengthen United States anti-trafficking ef-
forts. 
SEC. 3. MODIFICATION TO DEFINITION OF SEVERE FORMS 
OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS. 
Paragraph (11) of section 103 of the Trafficking Vic-
tims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is amend-
ed— 
(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 sub-
paragraph: 
‘‘(C) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, 
transfer, or receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or per-
sons 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 vul-
nerability, for the purpose of exploitation and profit, 
forced labor, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt 
bondage, slavery, child labor, or sex trafficking.’’. 
Æ 
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