Princess Eugenie of the United Kingdom and United States anti-human trafficking Ambassador John Richmond recently spoke in favor of using new technology like phone apps and blockchain to address human trafficking, Reuters reports on April 8.
Eugenie has campaigned against modern slavery for many years, having learned about the cause in 2012 following her father the Duke of York’s visit to the Women’s Interlink Foundation in Calcutta, India. She visited there herself in 2013, later co-founding the Anti-Slavery Collective with the aim to one day abolish modern slavery by supporting vulnerable women and children.
She reportedly noted that technology could also help fight trafficking. Eugenie, who founded the Anti-Slavery Collective in Britain in 2017, said:
I have learned about how blockchain is having a huge impact on supply chain management, and how an app in Britain can help the public report modern slavery at car washes.
The official Twitter account for the event, 
Human trafficking is far more deep-rooted than we could ever imagine,” she said.
We are abolitionists, we are the advance guard. We stand for all the people who cannot stand here themselves today.
Eugenie was referring to an initiative by Coca Cola and the U.S. Department of State, and the Safe Car Wash App. The former began in March 2018, and aims to use blockchain technology to create a secure worker registry. The partnership aims to address the problem of forced labor by using blockchain’s validation and digital notary capabilities to create a secure registry for workers and their contracts.
The Safe Car Wash App recently found nearly 1,000 cases of slave labor at car washes in the U.K. The app was launched by the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales last June, and allows users to enter their location and enter various indicators of the presence of slave labor, such as whether the establishment only accepts cash, or workers seem fearful.
Anti-human trafficking Ambassador Richmond noted that technology itself cannot stop human trafficking, saying, “There is not an algorithm or app that is going to stop human trafficking.” Richmond did note however:
“But there are tech tools that can help people to do their job better. This is the slow, grinding, day-in, day-out work that can help make a difference.”
References:
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-royal-us-ambassador-say-tech-blockchain-can-help-fight-human-trafficking
- https://honey.nine.com.au/2019/04/09/13/32/princess-eugenie-human-trafficking
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