The Australian Senate passed a new bill on August 21, 2024, that aims to fight the illegal organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting from living people, including Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and Other Measures) Bill 2024 dictates that anyone who has received an organ transplant overseas in the last five years will be asked upon arriving in Australia to disclose the location they received the transplant and the name of the medical facility where the operation took place. This information will then be compiled in an annual report presented to Australia’s parliament.

Senator Dean Smith, who introduced the legislation, said that “This is the most significant step made in decades in emboldening Australia’s efforts to combat the growing trade in illegal and unethical organ harvesting and trafficking, the information will be of great assistance to human rights organizations, medical institutions, and the Australian Government in analyzing data on trends in overseas transplants, and helping to corroborate existing evidence of organ trafficking or harvesting activities abroad.”

The bill’s passage in the Senate was made possible thanks to support from Liberal, National, Green, and independent senators and will now move to Australia’s House of Representatives.