A system to help keep track of gap year backpackers has been developed with help from Brighton University students and is being made available from today.
The university said: “It’s every parent’s nightmare – their son or daughter is off travelling and suddenly the emails and phone calls stop.
“Have they been injured, robbed, or worse?”
The new system has been developed with help from students at the Brighton Business School, which is part of the university.
It is called the Travellers’ Electronic Safety System (TESS) and can help trace missing people and could save lives.
It works by travellers logging on to the TESS website and updating their movements and plans including flights, bus trips, directions taken, hotels/hostels stayed at, and cities and places visited.
Should contact be lost then loved ones and the authorities can use TESS to short-cut what is often a torturous and lengthy process of tracing their last-known whereabouts.
Speed
The university said that speed at times like this was critical. And by speeding up the process the chances of tracing someone who has gone missing while travelling is greatly improved.
In cases where the traveller has been injured or kidnapped, the prospect of their survival is also improved.
Instead of police following cold trails and relying on scant information from families and witnesses, they can tap into TESS and find the latest information supplied by the travellers themselves.
More than 250,000 backpackers set off from Britain every year and many travel to remote and distant places, the university said.
A small number go missing and, thankfully, the vast majority are traced and found safe and well.
To support TESS, the National Policing Improvement Agency, which manages technology and support services to help police forces, has agreed to provide a central point of access to the system.
Charlie Hedges, NPIA Missing Persons Bureau liaison and support officer, said: “The bureau is pleased to provide a point of access as, sadly, things do sometimes go wrong when people are travelling.
“On those rare occasions, it is essential that the most up-to-date information is available about their whereabouts.
Extensive
“The bureau also has extensive international contacts and links to Interpol which are of benefit in such investigations.”
