Traffik Analysis Hub

Over 50 million people are enslaved annually. One in three are children, most are women and girls. These victims are subjected to horrific abuse and exploitation. This criminal business is all about profit, and, by some estimates, the traffickers are making over $500 billion in revenue annually (greater than the annual GDP of 85% of countries). Modern slavery and human trafficking are ultimately on the rise. Climate change and increased humanitarian disasters are exacerbating risk further, making more innocent people vulnerable to exploitation every year. This is a global emergency that requires a data-driven, preventative approach.   

Problem 1: Global Data Gap 

Modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) are crimes hidden in plain sight, and weaves undetected through every element of our society, from factories and car washes to nail salons and supermarkets and beyond. Frontline organisations, law enforcement, businesses, and banks all hold critical information about how traffickers operate. Yet, unless that information is shared – everyone is holding separate pieces of the puzzle. This data-gap is dangerous for two key reasons: 

Traffickers abuse this anonymity, hiding in the shadows, generating an approximated $200,000 in profit per victim exploited, for an associated likelihood of under $100 in risk (Avery Centre, 2021) of being fined, arrested or prosecuted. Traffickers also abuse the anonymity afforded by technology (such as social media platforms, or online money transfer services) to ‘recruit’ individuals into exploitation, and to launder money through legitimate financial institutions.  

We can’t fight what we can’t see, the global data gap means organisations can struggle to best allocate resource to effectively fight back against traffickers. 

Problem 2: Lack of Space for Survivors to Share their Story 

We know that those closest to the issue understand it best, and yet survivors are consistently left out of the narrative. We need to offer an anonymous space for survivors who may want to share their stories into a safe, secure environment, where their voice can drive real action without having to be public-facing.  

Summary 

To stay one step ahead of the traffickers, we must leverage the latest developments in technology, including machine learning, large language models, and generative AI, to uplift survivor stories, shine a light on the hidden criminal business of modern slavery and human trafficking to support those in or at-risk of exploitation, and ultimately prevent MSHT.  

In 2017 STOP THE TRAFFIK created the Traffik Analysis Hub (TA Hub), now the world’s richest dataset on MSHT incidents. The TA Hub leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language recognition to consolidate and aggregate unstructured data, mainly survivor stories, from a range of different sources into a single, consolidated dataset. Ultimately, the TA Hub turns survivor stories into data points, which illuminate hotspots, trends, and routes of MSHT.  

With 500 users, 200 data-sharing actors, and half a million data points, the TA Hub is available for stakeholders around the world to make better data-driven decisions to effectively prevent and disrupt human trafficking. By sharing and collecting rich data across sectors into one central, secure hub, we can expose traffickers’ criminal operations and stop them. 

The Ta Hub is a powerful solution that empowers survivors in the fight to create a world better than the one in which they were exploited. We do this in two ways: 

Uplifting Lived Experience Voices: Firstly, the TA Hub provides a pathway for those with lived experience to safely share their stories, affording anonymity whilst also uplifting these voices to drive change and create a world better than the one in which these individuals were exploited. By uplifting lived experience narratives into a central, secure platform for key stakeholders to access, we are placing survivor voices at the heart of our collective work to prevent this crime. 

Closing the Global Data Gap: Secondly, the TA Hub undoubtedly strengthens the ecosystem of providers by enhancing efficiencies in communication, data collection and sharing, and coordination. The TA Hub is critical in fighting the data siloes and gaps that allow trafficking to flourish undetected. Perhaps more importantly than the raw data itself is the fact that the TA Hub acts as the heart of a huge network of over 160 key stakeholders who work to fight modern slavery and human trafficking. We have a proven model to encourage safe, relevant data sharing amongst this network called the power of 10 initiative through which we bring together 10 NGOs and/or other frontline partners to share survivor narratives which we collate and analyse.  

By utilising and enhancing the TA Hub dataset, frontline and secondary service providers and NGOs can better understand and predict trends relevant to their region or field of work, better deploy resource, and thus ultimately better support survivors. We also run Intelligence Community Calls for our network of NGOs, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and businesses, so that we act together as a data-driven, human-centred ecosystem for change. 

“We share into the Traffik Analysis Hub because we believe in the power of shared data to disrupt Human Trafficking. Insights from the hub allow us to have a better picture of how and where exploitation happens beyond our own country and shape our prevention efforts to keep people safe from trafficking.” - Loredana Urzica-Mirea, Executive Director of eLiberare.

Human trafficking data is incredibly sensitive and data security is a core pillar to maintaining trust and data sharing. As guardians of the world’s richest dataset of survivor stories, we have a legal and moral responsibility to safely store data to protect people's data privacy and human rights, people's ownership over their story and their history is part of this. Data protection and cyber security enshrines this belief, and we consistently work to maintain the highest standards of data protection. It is important that we are conscious that as the Traffik Analysis Hub continues to scale, and to disrupt the illegal operations of traffickers, the success of the TA Hub may also come with increased risk of cyber-attack. We are currently certified with Cyber Essentials and are in the process of completing Cyber Plus advanced certification. 

Before partnering with an organisation, we run a due diligence process, and then sign a legal contract with any partners within which we require that they only use any information shared for the purpose of ending human trafficking. There is no public access to our technology or data. 

We require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to be completed at the start of any major project involving the use of personal data, or when making any significant change to an existing process. 

Within the technology we run bespoke AI/ML models over open-source intelligence to highlight intelligence that can help people prevent human trafficking, these models are monitored and improved as required. In addition, we monitor the bias in open-source intelligence and are actively working to source new data to mitigate this risk. 

We have a commitment to our Board of Directors to write an AI ethics paper with tangible proposals within the next financial year. 

Imagine the hardest thing that you have been through in your life. Then, imagine that somebody tells you that you can be part of stopping this from happening to somebody else. However, the cost to you would be that you must tell your story to rooms of strangers, to journalists, to researchers, and on social media, over and over again. Would you do it? Many of us wouldn't, and yet, this is the burden that is so often placed on people with lived experience of human trafficking. They are the lived experience experts in what has happened to them, but there's a huge cost to them having to talk about their trauma. The Traffik Analysis Hub proves a space for survivors to share their story once, to have it amplified by actors around the globe without having to repeat their story repeatedly if they do not wish to. 

Equally, survivors are consistently left out of the narrative, particularly if they are not interested in becoming a public-facing survivor leader. We need to offer a space for survivors to share their stories into a safe, secure environment, where their voice can drive action and change. The TA Hub acts as a platform for those with lived experience to safely share their stories, affording anonymity whilst also uplifting these voices into a powerful network.  

“When I look at this data, I not only see change happening...but...I realise I am one voice in a million others of a problem much bigger than me, and that helps me to feel less shame.”  - Survivor during a focus group 

Our organisation actively includes those with lived experience of MSHT and intersecting vulnerabilities across our programmes and longer-term strategic development. 

Lived Experience Inclusion:

• Our work as a wider organisation (STOP THE TRAFFIK) is directed by our Traffik Analysis Hub, the world’s richest collection of anonymised survivor stories.  
• We employ a lived experience expert to consult on our data engagement strategy, to increase and amplify survivor voices throughout our work.  
• We have a diverse team with lived experience of vulnerabilities intersecting with MSHT, such as conflict, violence and forced migration. 
• Where appropriate, specific programmes, such as our 2022-23 Ukraine Response, are managed by an individual with lived experience intersecting with the project.  
• For our project-based work we conduct specific, relevant survivor consultations and focus groups (i.e. which focus on specific vulnerabilities in certain regions/demographics or consult on specific types of exploitation).  
• We have a pioneering lived experience data inclusion model (the power of 10 initiative).  

Our Team:

• Our Data and Technology team are led by Tom Higgens, PhD, Director of Data and Technology. Tom has 25 years’ experience developing data products and is supported by a Full Stack Developer, Data Scientist, and a Python Coder, as well as pro-bono support from several technology companies. 
• Our team is supported by Rebekah Lisgarten, Director of Operations, with 12 years' experience, specialising in trauma-informed care, working directly with those with lived experience of human trafficking and expertise in all forms of exploitation in varying global regions. 

The Traffik Analysis Hub (TA Hub) is a pioneering solution, and hundreds of organisations across the globe already rely on it to inform their work. The TA Hub has over 500 users which includes stakeholders across NGOs, frontline services, law enforcement, financial institutions, businesses (across multiple sectors), academic researchers. Critically, we have cultivated an intelligence community who sit around the Hub, and not only receive Key Judgement, Tactical and Bad Actor Reports from the STOP THE TRAFFIK team, so that they can take informed action, but many of whom also actively share their data into the hub. This means we have a solution that is available to and serving multiple communities globally.  

The impact of the TA Hub to date is remarkable, and it is growing. The Annual US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report has acknowledged the TA Hub as ‘a global technological solution to fight trafficking’. This tool has proven impact and with support we can grow, improve and scale our existing technology to truly disrupt this crime.  

The TA Hub is ready for and requires modernisation and investment to keep up with rapid evolutions in technology. For example, our main scraping language currently is English. We have begun the work to expand our sources of data by using large language models to scrape open-source data in Spanish, and we aim to go further. Including articles in multiple languages will make the TA Hub accessible to a broader, more diverse global network. Most pressingly, we see the untapped potential of generative-AI for the TA Hub. The ML and AI models underpinning the TA Hub are now four years old, and the solution could be fundamentally transformed through modern AI integration to utilise the latest advancements in generative AI and large language models. 

The Traffik Analysis hub provides the largest customisable database on modern slavery and human trafficking incidents worldwide. The funding and expertise required to maintain such a sophisticated database is very high, and it is unusual that a database of this quality is maintained entirely by a small not-for-profit organisation. We would benefit from the expertise provided via the MIT Solve Challenge in several ways: 

• Financial – We are a small charity, but we are growing. In the past five years we have grown from £700,000 to a £1.4 million budget. Our finance team would benefit from financial advice to help us grow sustainably, protect and diversify our income, and invest safely. 
• Technical - The TA Hub was built in 2017. Technology is rapidly and constantly evolving. We need to ensure we are utilizing the latest software and systems to ensure data is accurate, and usable. In-kind resources to support our data and tech team and help us to capitalize on the latest developments in generative AI would be incredibly valuable.
• Legal – Given our focus and emphasis on data sharing, and with the advent of stricter GDPR and data privacy rules globally, we would benefit from pro-bono legal support to support our smaller NGOs with systems and legal advice, and perhaps a handbook, so that they can confidently and safely share data with us. 
• Business model – Support bringing our ESG products and services into the marketplace, ensuring product-market fit and expanding client base into diverse sectors. 

“Stories are data with a soul” - Brene Brown 

The TA Hub is a pioneering, global solution that uplifts survivor stories to address the global data gap on MSHT and drive real change.  

We cannot stop what we cannot see

To stop modern slavery and human trafficking we must address the data gap, which ultimately allows traffickers to hide in the shadows and prevents global stakeholders from best fighting back. The TA Hub acts as an innovative technological tool to facilitate safe and anonymous data sharing, and to offer accurate, accessible and usable information for as many global actors as possible. Through several streams of work, we gather lived experience narratives through open-source web scraping, frontline data, and directly from those with lived experience and uplift them into this secure space. The TA Hub visualises this data to create a live picture of human trafficking trends, routes, hotspots, recruitment methods, and a range of detailed views based on bespoke filters. To further fuel the TA Hub, STOP THE TRAFFIK have also pioneered our ‘Power of 10’ methodology which is effective in bringing NGOs together to safely share anonymised data. These initiatives are the catalyst for NGOs on their data journey, taking them through a full program of how to collect, clean and safely share and use data insights. These initiatives have generated extensive, visualised data sets, and we can scale this approach internationally. 

We will not stop trafficking alone

The true power of the TA Hub is that is sits at the centre of a global network of relevant stakeholders in the fight against MSHT. We offer access to the TA Hub and Exploitation Analytics to our global network of over 200 key stakeholders, including NGOs, businesses, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, researchers, governments, and policymakers to encourage data-driven action. The TA Hub allows actors across the globe to see and evidence high-risk and high-need areas directing their work (for instance survivor support services), allocate resource effectively, and make data-informed preventative decisions and facilitate earlier interventions and rescues. 

Hear directly from our network about the power of the TA Hub: 

“Having accurate and up-to-date data is critical to decision-making. The Exodus Road encourages other NGO partners focusing on intervention to join the Traffik Analysis Hub.” - Andrew Hoskins, Vice President of International Programmes, The Exodus Road  

“We work with STOP THE TRAFFIK because their Exploitation Analytics reports are data and intelligence led. Their insights help to keep us on top of emerging trends, allowing us to strengthen our controls and play our part in the disruption and prevention of human trafficking. We are proud to be part of STOP THE TRAFFIK’s global intelligence network.” - Allied Irish Bank 

“Please be informed that THREE individuals were rescued on 12 October 2023, thanks to the information shared by STOP THE TRAFFIK.” - Law Enforcement Agency 

Objective 1: Increase the volume of data held within the Traffik Analysis Hub. 

Activity 1.a: Collecting and storing survivor stories and lived experience data utilizing our safe and secure processes. 

Activity 1.b: Scraping open-source and third-party data using machine learning models. 

Output 1.a: A safe, secure dataset of lived experience and survivor stories is created. 

Output 1.b: A rich multi-source data picture is generated and consistently updated within the TA Hub. 

Outcome 1.a: Survivor stories and lived experience data has been safely and securely stored, ready to be cleaned, reviewed and ingested into the TA Hub. 

Outcome 1.b: A rich multi-source dataset is generated within the TA Hub indicating trends, routes and hotspots of MSHT globally. 

Objective 2: Ensure the quality of data held in the Traffik Analysis Hub is high. 

Activity 2.a: Cleaning of data pre-ingestion and meta-data management of closed-source data. 

Activity 2.b: Data quality checks including periodic review of values in data-set, blacklists on data sources, and de-duplication efforts across the TA Hub. 

Output 2: The TA Hub is provided, displaying relevant and accurate data pertinent to MSHT. 

Outcome 2: The global data gap on MSHT is addressed through an accurate, democratised dataset.

Objective 3: Ensure data held in the Traffik Analysis Hub is accessible, useable and clear for users. 

Activity 3.a: Ingesting and Categorizing Data. 

Activity 3.b: Visualizing Data into Map format including route maps, heatmaps and cluster markers. 

Output 3.a: The TA Hub comprehensive and rich dataset that can be customized for different users and filtered with selection tools (e.g. 'show by exploitation type') 

Output 3.b: The TA Hub Map Tools. 

Outcome 3: Data contained within the TA Hub is accessible, useful and customizable for a wide variety of stakeholders, particularly for those without data-analysis capacity/resource. 

Objective 4: Encourage effective use of the Traffik Analysis Hub across a wide range of stakeholders including organizations and individuals. 

Activity 4.a: Building a network of interested individuals and organizations by providing interactive demo calls to relevant stakeholders. 

Activity 4.b: Providing comprehensive onboarding and training to relevant organizations and individuals interested in utilizing and sharing into the TA Hub. 

Output 4.a: TA Hub Demo Calls delivered. TA Hub access log ins provided. 

Output 4.b: TA Hub Onboarding and Training Calls provided. 

Outcome 4: A network of interested and relevant stakeholder are provided access to the TA Hub, and equipped to use the platform and share into it. 

Objective 5: Consistently maintain the Traffik Analysis Hub platform so that it functions and runs securely and seamlessly. 

Activity 5: Consistently maintaining the software of the TA Hub through a variety of activities including maintaining the highest level of cyber-security protocols, procedures, software and hardware. 

Output 5: The TA Hub - available and secure globally. 

Outcome 5: Global actors are provided with a rich accessible data picture to 1. see and evidence high-risk and high-need areas directing their work (for instance survivor support services) 2. allocate resource effectively, 3. make data-informed preventative decisions and facilitate earlier interventions and more. 

Objective 1: Increase the volume of data held within the Traffik Analysis Hub.

Impact Goal 1: The global data gap on MSHT is addressed, as rich data is collected and safely stored, ready to be ingested and analysed to uplift survivor voices and allow actors to take informed decisions based on rich, live or near-live data.

Indicators (1): 

• Volume of data collected from NGOS, LEAs and directly from survivors.
• Number of organisations sharing data into the TA Hub.
• Volume of data points held in the TA hub. 
• Number of scraping languages.

Objective 2: Ensure the quality of data held in the Traffik Analysis Hub is high.

Impact Goal 2: The global data gap on MSHT is addressed through an accurate, democratised dataset avaliable to key stakeholders,  to uplift survivor voices and allow kay actors to take data-driven decisions.

Indictor (2): Number of reviewed and signed off data points.

Objective 3: Ensure data held in the Traffik Analysis Hub is accessible, useable and clear for users.

Impact Goal 3: More actors across the globe (including NGOs, frontline services, community groups, decision-makers, law enforcement and other key stakeholders) can use the Traffik Analysis Hub to: 1. see and evidence high-risk and high-need areas directing their work (for instance survivor support services) 2. allocate resource effectively, 3. make data-informed preventative decisions and facilitate earlier interventions and more.

Indicators (3): 

• Diversity of sectors of organisations using the hub. 
• Engagement of users/organisations monthly.
• Number of actions taken through use of TA Hub data.

Objective 4: Encourage effective use of the Traffik Analysis Hub across a wide range of stakeholders including organisations and individuals.

Impact Goal 4: Global actors use the Traffik Analysis Hub to: 1. see and evidence high-risk and high-need areas directing their work (for instance survivor support services) 2. allocate resource effectively, 3. make data-informed preventative decisions and facilitate earlier interventions and more.

Indicators (4):

• Number of users/organisations using the hub. 
• Engagement of users/organisations monthly.  
• Number of actions taken through use of TA Hub data. 

Objective 5: Consistently maintain the Traffik Analysis Hub platform so that it functions and runs securely and seamlessly.

Impact Goal 5: The global data gap on MSHT is addressed, cross-sector sharing is facilitated through the TA Hub as a secure platform, and key actors are equipped to take data-driven decisions in the fight against MSHT.

Indicators (5):

• Volume of data points held in the TA hub. 
• Number of individual users and organisations using the hub. 
• Number of organisations sharing into the hub. 
• Diversity of sectors of orgs using the hub.
• Passing cyber security accreditations.

The Traffik Analysis Hub (TA Hub) leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language recognition to consolidate and aggregate unstructured data, mainly survivor stories, from a range of different sources into a single, democratised dataset. The TA Hub solution is trained to recognise terms and incidents related to human trafficking in the unstructured content and structure it along the golden tags schema. This allows for consistent formatting, analysis and outputs. With the data from all sources on the platform aggregated, structured and linked, the initially disparate datasets are transformed into a common actional information pool.  

The TA Hub also offers a range of unique and innovative data visualisations and interactive tools, providing users with an interactive and customisable interface to inform their work preventing MSHT. From various map-based visualisations to our supply chain risk assessment tools, the TA Hub facilitates meaningful cross-sector collaboration between key stakeholders with the common goal of ending modern slavery. Alongside the TA Hub, we have an in-house Data and Intelligence Team, ensuring this dataset remains human-centred and providing actionable recommendations to businesses, financial institutions, and law enforcement in a usable format (Key Judgment Reports, Tactical Reports, and Bad Actor Reports). 

Full-time staff - 5. 

7 years.

We have a robust EDI policy, blind recruitment process, and a statement on every job application that we encourage people from all backgrounds and especially those with lived experience relating to MSHT. As a result, we have an exceptionally diverse team from around the world, speaking many different languages, and we hope this therefore creates a warm and welcoming environment for runners from diverse backgrounds. We always want to do more to improve DEI further, and have a nominated internal DEI champion to strive to challenge the organisation to push further.

We are a registered charity with the Charities Commission of England and Wales and operate on a not-for-profit basis. As such we primarily depend upon grant funding and individual donations. We do provide a suite of products and invoices services, our Exploitation Analytics services, the income generated through this is used to fund our programmes and charitable activities. 

We have a strong track record of securing multi-year grant funding. We also have a strong line of income through individual donations. In order to diversify further we are seeking to expand our Exploitation Analytics service. Our Exploitation Analytics services are delivered by our intelligence team who provide insights (Key Judgements, Tactical Reports and Bad Actors Reports) based on the Traffik Analysis Hub to a range of financial institutions on a yearly subscription basis. We are aiming to grow this stream of income further to increase the number of programmes we are able to deliver.