Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - United States of America (Ratification: 1999)

Articles 3(a), 7(1) and 7(2)(b) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour. Sale and trafficking of children, penalties and assistance to victims. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s detailed information, in its report, regarding the Government’s efforts to combat human trafficking and protect victims, including children. The Government largely refers to the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of US Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons (AG’s report), which describes efforts undertaken by numerous federal agencies including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Labor (DOL), Department of State (USDOS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In particular, the Committee notes the following:

• Policies and plans of action: In January 2022, the Attorney General released the DOJ’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking. This strategy, based on the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, aims to enhance DOJ’s ability to prevent human trafficking, prosecute offenders, and support victims. In June 2023, the DOJ released the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, addressing the growing online threat to children and outlining efforts to prevent child sexual exploitation, hold offenders accountable, and protect victims. Moreover, in 2022, the DOJ launched an interagency Forced Labor Initiative to improve the detection, investigation, and prosecution of forced labour violations. This initiative, aligned with the National Action Plan and the DOJ’s National Strategy, involves an interagency Steering Group comprising the FBI, DOL, and DHS. This group assesses forced labour threats, identifies actionable leads, initiates investigations and prosecutions, and provides expertise to advance district-level efforts. The Steering Committee has prioritized forced child labour as a significant focus of the initiative.
• Identification, prosecutions, convictions: The Committee notes the efforts and statistics related to the identification of trafficking victims and the prosecutions and convictions of traffickers by federal agencies such as the DOJ, the DHS, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the FBI. For instance, in 2020, DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents identified 51 minors as potential human trafficking victims, referring these cases to DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (DHS ICE HSI). The DoD investigated six child sex trafficking cases with six victims in 2020. Additionally, the DOJ led hundreds of human trafficking investigations and prosecutions in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, federal criminal sentences for defendants convicted of sex trafficking minors ranged from 149 months to life in prison. In 2021, sentences for such crimes ranged from 20 years to life in prison.
• Strengthening law enforcement: The Committee also takes note of several initiatives to strengthen law enforcement. For instance, in August 2022, the FBI conducted Operation Cross Country XII, a law enforcement exercise under the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative (ILNI) to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children. In coordination with local, state, and federal partners, child exploitation and human trafficking task forces across the country conducted 391 operations, identifying 84 minor victims and locating 37 missing children. The FBI’s Victim Services Division referred victims to nongovernmental organizations for additional services. Additionally, the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded nearly US$1 million for the Research on Law Enforcement Responses to Sex Trafficking of Minors program to study how law enforcement practices in preventing and responding to the sex trafficking of minors have evolved since the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000.
• Victim protection: The Committee notes that the TVPA was reauthorized in January 2023, continuing its mission to protect victims and prosecute and prevent human trafficking. In 2021, the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded nearly US$87 million for human trafficking programs, with most funds allocated to the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) to support direct services for trafficking victims. US$14.8 million was specifically directed at enhancing responses to child and youth victims of human trafficking. Additionally, the HHS provides benefits and services to trafficking victims and survivors. In 2022, HHS issued 2,226 Eligibility Letters to foreign national minors, granting them access to federally funded benefits and services equivalent to those available to refugees. The HHS Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) funds comprehensive case management and support services for foreign nationals experiencing human trafficking through the Trafficking Victim Assistance Program. HHS also continued to issue grants for case management services to domestic trafficking victims, serving 1,237 adult and child victims in 2022.
• International cooperation: Since 2019, the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) has negotiated Child Protection Compact (CPC) partnerships to combat all forms of child trafficking (e.g., child sex trafficking and forced child labour) with the Governments of Mongolia (2020), Colombia (2022), and Cote d’Ivoire (2022).

The Committee takes due note of these measures and welcomes the Government’s comprehensive efforts to combat trafficking, including child trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation. The Committee notes that according to the USDOS 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report on the United States, while the Government continues to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking, there is still work to be done. Specifically, improvements are needed in enhancing and expanding screening for both sex and labour trafficking indicators throughout the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Additionally, there is a need for increased resources for legal representation and in-person wellness checks for all unaccompanied children. The Committee encourages the Government to continue its efforts to eliminate the trafficking of children for both labour and sexual exploitation, including as regards screening for trafficking indicators throughout the child welfare systems and improving legal representation and wellness checks for unaccompanied children. It once again requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken in this regard and the results achieved.