The UN goTravel software explained

What goTravel does

goTravel supports Passenger Information Units in collecting, sharing, analysing and disseminating passenger data. Its listed components are goTravel Single Window, goTravel Claims and Provisions, and goTravel Analytics ³. The UN says it is a reconfigured version of the Travel Information Portal (TRIP), which the Netherlands donated to the UN on 26 September 2018 ³.

The UN FAQ says the system supports rule-based targeting on API and PNR data elements, and risk-based targeting that finds patterns between passengers such as shared phone numbers or flight routes ¹. Watch lists can be created, maintained or imported. External lists can be queried through a goConnect module, and INTERPOL I-24/7 queries must be switched on by the country ¹. The FAQ says AI capabilities are not available ¹.

The programme says PIUs cross-check passenger data against national and international databases and watch lists, including those of INTERPOL, and use risk indicators to find unknown threats ².

Which countries have signed up

The UN goTravel FAQ says that as of December 2025 seven countries were fully operational and four were onboarding. More than 15 more were preparing to adopt it ¹. The programme page says it works with 91 Member States, 69 of which receive its full technical assistance package ². Working with the programme is not the same as running goTravel.

Who hosts the data and how it is deployed

The FAQ says goTravel is typically deployed and self-hosted in Member State data centres, and can be provided in a Member State's private cloud on request. It says no data is managed by the United Nations ¹. It names the country's PIU as the owner of the passenger data ¹. UN staff may access a system only for limited, time-bound tasks the data owner authorises ¹.

Engagement runs under a five-year Memorandum of Agreement. The FAQ says the software is provided free of charge to Member States that commit to contribute yearly, and some third-party licences, such as Windows Server and Elasticsearch, may have to be bought by the country ¹. For agreements signed after 1 January 2026, UNOCT covers support in the first year with donor funds. Countries may then join a cost-sharing scheme with four annual bands of US$50,000, US$100,000, US$200,000 and US$350,000, based on GDP at purchasing power parity ¹. Band D countries pay from the date of signing ¹.

Retention is set by each Member State's data protection officer to match national law, and data are deleted when the period ends ¹.

Oversight and safeguards

UNOCT says goTravel does not feature automated decision-making and that an appointed official must assess all matches and hits ⁴. Every action can be audited by the PIU data protection officer and the national oversight authority ⁴. The FAQ says all operator actions are logged in an audit database and that 99% of passengers are screened without manual review ¹.

UNOCT says agreements require Member States to comply with international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, and that a privacy impact assessment is carried out during set-up ⁴. The DRC and Benin agreements refer to human rights and to privacy and data protection ^7,9.

Findings by the UN Special Rapporteur

In a 2023 position paper, UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin recommended that the roll-out of the programme and goTravel be paused ¹⁰. The paper said each State sets its own risk indicators and has no duty to tell UNOCT its criteria or methods ¹⁰. It said the software had never been formally reviewed for its accuracy in identifying named individuals ¹⁰. It said no system is in place for the UN to observe or control use by Member States, and that the programme has no obvious mechanism to revoke support once granted ¹⁰. It said a number of recipient States have records of systematic human rights abuse ¹⁰.

UNOCT position: its human rights page, which does not refer to the position paper, states that the UN has no access to Member State data, that deployment follows the Secretary-General's guidance on human rights due diligence for digital technology, and that configuration is aligned with the EU PNR Directive and Court of Justice rulings ⁴.