Finding a Way Out
One of the greatest obstacles for survivors is knowing what to do and where to go next. Organizations and nonprofits around the world are seeing opportunities to use modern technology to counter human trafficking and improve the lives of those who have escaped.
Love Justice International, a civil society organization funded by the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking, helps identify potential victims “after they are recruited but before they are exploited,” according to the United Nations website.
“By combining its own data on previous potential victims with road network graphs from OpenStreetMap (a collaborative open-source geographic database), it has created route heatmaps showing the road segments that are likely to be most heavily used for human trafficking in certain areas.”
In collaboration with NASA and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, Love Justice uses data to predict and interdict potential victim routes and locations.
Their approach has prevented over 30,000 people from being trafficked across 28 countries, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
