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GAO-16-528R 1 (2016-05-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaajxr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAOU.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 May 26, 2016 Congressional Committees Human Trafficking: Actions Taken to Implement Related Statutory Provisions Human trafficking involves the exploitation of a person typically through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of forced labor, involuntary servitude, or commercial sex. Human trafficking victims include women, men and transgender individuals; adults and children; and foreign nationals and U.S. citizens or nationals who are diverse with respect to race, ethnicity, and sexuality, among other factors. Human trafficking can take place in rural, suburban, and urban settings throughout the country, and often involves victims who are already vulnerable-such as missing and runaway youth or persons dealing with substance abuse addictions. Over the past 16 years, Congress has taken numerous legislative actions to help combat human trafficking and ensure that victims have access to needed services. In October 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was enacted to combat trafficking in persons, ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers and protect trafficking victims.1 The act also updated and supplemented existing involuntary servitude statutes used to prosecute trafficking crimes, enhanced the penalties for trafficking crimes, and provided a range of new protections and assistance for victims of trafficking. Among other things, the TVPA, as amended, makes it illegal to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, or solicit any person knowing, or with reckless disregard of the fact, that force, fraud, or coercion will be used to cause such person to engage in a commercial sex act. The TVPA also makes it illegal to take the above actions, and thus causing a person under 18 years of age to engage in a commercial sex act, with or without the use of force, fraud, or coercion. 2 In addition, the TVPA criminalized the use of certain means, including force, threats of force, physical restraint, or serious harm or threats of such harm, to knowingly provide or obtain persons for any labor or services, such as working in farms, factories, and households.3 Congress reauthorized and amended the act in 2003, 2005, and 2008; and in 2013, Congress further amended provisions of the TVPA, its reauthorizations, and other related laws. 4 Statutes such as the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, and the Missing Children's Assistance Act, while not generally related to human trafficking, could help assist individuals who are believed to be particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking, such as missing, 1 Pub. L. No. 106-386, div. A, § 102, 114 Stat. 1464, 1466-91 (2000) (classified to 22 U.S.C. § 7101 (a)). 218 U.S.C. § 1591 (a). 3See id. § 1589(a). 4Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-193, 117 Stat. 2875 (2003); Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-164, 119 Stat. 3558 (2006); William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-457, 122 Stat. 5044 (2008); Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, Pub. L. No. 113-4, tit. XII, 127 Stat. 54, 136-60. GAO-16-528R Human Trafficking Page 1

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