Worldwide, almost 25 million people were in a situation of forced labour in 2016. To fight the problem, researchers developed an app.
According to the International Labor Organisation, approximately 40 million people worldwide are in modern slavery including almost 25 million in forced labour, on any day in 2016.
One in four victims are exploited outside of their country of residence, pointing at the vulnerability of migrant workers (ILO 2017, p. 30).
The Asia Pacific Region has the highest share of victims across all forms of modern slavery (p. 27).
To combat the problem, civil society organisations and authorities in Thailand are now supported by an app, which allows first-line responders to better identify victims of human trafficking and labour exploitation. The development of this app, called Apprise, was headed by Hannah Thinyane, a computer scientist at UNU Macao with a background in ICT for development.
In this episode I speak to Hannah about the project that led to the making of Apprise, and how the app has been received.
Dr. Hannah Thinyane is a Principal Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute in Macau.
Learn more about Hannah and Apprise here:
Hannah´s profile: https://unu.edu/experts/hannah-thinyane.html#profile
Apprise: https://www.apprise.solutions/home
Cited ILO Report : Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage
International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 2017
ISBN: 978-92-2-130131-8 (print)
ISBN: 978-92-2-130132-5 (web pdf)
Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf