The University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, UK, has won a funding grant from the UK Space Agency to tackle human trafficking and forced labor in Uganda, using satellite Earth Observation technology.
Professor Doreen Boyd, of the Rights Lab, will work with Airbus Defence and Space, the University of Dundee and partners in Uganda, to support anti-trafficking efforts there. The project, known as Anti-trafficking using Satellite Technology for Uganda’s Sustainability (ASTUS), builds on Professor Boyd’s previous work, Fighting Slavery from Space, and expertise in using satellite imagery to take observations and measurements of Earth.
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The ASTUS project will develop a stakeholder-informed Modern Anti-trafficking Support System (MASS), underpinned by satellite imagery and associated geospatial datasets, with the aim of enhancing Uganda’s anti-trafficking efforts and progress towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal, Target 8.7. The MASS aims to assist anti-trafficking decision-making and response at scales never seen before.
Project lead, Doreen Boyd, Professor of Earth Observation in the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, said: “Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is a global issue that affects millions of people and thus requires ingenious approaches to address. At the Rights Lab, we have been working with our partners on a blueprint to ending the scourge of TIP and realizing the potential of an Earth Observation approach to support anti-trafficking activity.
“We are very fortunate to be working with our partners in Uganda, a country that is keen go above and beyond in its commitment to tackling TIP. What we achieve in Uganda should have global replicability, towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of ending TIP by 2030, and achieving a ‘Freedom Dividend’ that benefits us all.”
