Smith Calls on US, International Community to Redouble Efforts to End Scourge of International Sex Tourism

Press Release

Today, on United Nations' World Tourism Day, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), an international leader in the fight against human trafficking, said that nations can both "recognize tourism's significant contributions to the world economy, but must also work hard to combat and end international sex tourism to protect those who are most vulnerable--especially children--from exploitation."

"We can--we must--do both," said Rep. Smith, author of International Megan's Law to combat child sex tourism and four additional anti-trafficking laws. "Working together, the community of nations, international transportation and hospitality industries, and nongovernmental organizations can all ensure that the modalities of tourism, here to help bring people to new lands and share cultures, are also the eyes and ears on the front lines to help protect the women and children exploited by sex tourism."

Authored by Smith, International Megan's Law provides important tools to combat child sex tourism by tracking the travel of known pedophiles and alerting countries who can then deny them entry.

The law, which authorized the Angel Watch Center, has resulted in more than 15,500 notifications of planned travel by convicted child sex offenders--with 6,000 denied entry to date.

"International Megan's Law is a major prevention strategy targeting child sex tourism," said Smith. "The law requires convicted child sex offenders who travel abroad to provide notice to the U.S. Government--via the Angel Watch Center--prior to departure of all planned destinations, or face a significant jail term commensurate with a convicted child sex abuser not reporting to local law enforcement."

"Upon receipt of the travel itinerary, the U.S. government informs the destination country or countries of those plans, empowering them with actionable information to render the child predator inadmissible," Smith said.

Additionally, International Megan's Law requires the passport of every convicted sex offender to contain the following message out of an abundance of caution that some may fail to include their true destination when filing: "The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212(b)."

Smith's law was named in the honor of Megan Kanka--the 7-year-old girl who was killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender living on her street in Smith's hometown of Hamilton. Working with Megan's parents, Smith introduced the legislation, which passed the House of Representatives in 2010, 2014 and 2016 and finally cleared the Senate and was signed into law later that year.

While much progress has been made to combat the scourge of international sex tourism, more work remains to be done, said Smith, whose most recent legislation to reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000--the Nation's landmark legislation written by Smith to combat human trafficking--expands International Megan's Law.

Introduced earlier this month, Smith's Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021 reauthorizes funding for the Angel Watch Center; expands International Megan's Law to ensure that sex offenders register upon return to the U.S. after living in foreign countries; requires passport identifiers for sex offenders moving or residing outside the U.S.; and creates a minimum standard in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report--established by Smith's TVPA--to eliminate international sex tourism through arrests, prosecutions, and convictions.

"We must continue to do everything we can to stop predators from harming the most vulnerable and innocent among us," Smith said.

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