Human trafficking, the narcotics trade and weapons smuggling all feed conflict, instability and repression worldwide. Human trafficking networks are a bigger problem than many people might think. It is estimated that that nearly 21 million people are enslaved in forced labor and trafficking situations across the world today, and the industry generates at least $32 billion of illicit profits every year. Local efforts on the ground provide vital help to victims in need, but resources and information are siloed from organization to organization, and region to region.
Hotlines are a particularly powerful tool for connecting victims to resources, and while there are dozens of independent hotlines worldwide, trafficking is a global issue that requires better cross-border coordination. At the Google Ideas INFO Summit, a working lab brought together experts, technologists and survivors of human trafficking to tackle the question of what if local, regional and national anti-trafficking helplines across the globe were all connected in a data-driven network that helped disrupt the web of human trafficking?
Building a global anti-human trafficking hotline network:
Building a global anti-human trafficking hotline network:
Since the summit, Google Ideas continued to work with Polaris Project, Liberty Asia and La Strada International to build an international information-sharing collaboration between anti-human trafficking hotlines and nonprofits. The initiative will enable easier case coordination and victim protection across borders through the development of a shared platform for information exchange. The project is funded by a Global Impact Award.
Fighting human trafficking with data:An initial collaboration with Palantir to analyze Polaris Project’s data has revealed some interesting and valuable insights such as the seasonal trends in trafficking within door-door sales crews, or the prevalence of trafficking into the sex trade along the major truck routes in the US. Through future collaboration with many more hotlines, the integrated system will hopefully provide insights and protection for hundreds and thousands of potential victims around the world.
Source: https://www.google.com/ideas
