Asylum Seeker Apps

Apps and social media not only play a part in the process of migration but also, play a crucial role when asylum seekers settle down. Once asylum seekers have found a place where they, for the time being at least, are allowed to stay, apps and social media play a big part in their lives.

As seen in Hasan’s story, smartphones are not only used for communication, but also for obtaining information. Communication and information are not only relevant in the process of migration, but also in settling down. Keeping others up to date on one’s whereabouts and well-being is as important as gathering information. This will aid in the adjustment of one’s new surroundings.

Because of this, there are a lot of apps available that target asylum seekers and refugees specifically. To get an idea of these apps we will now take a closer look at some of these apps to see what their function is.

Refugee Buddy

Refugee Buddy App Refugee Buddy App

Refugee Buddy is an app provided by the Dutch Red Cross. The app aims to provide up to date and relevant information to refugees and asylum seekers in the Netherlands. The app is available in four languages; English, Arabic, French and Tigrinya. The app answers the basic needs of someone who has arrived in the Netherlands, for example the app helps you:

• find your way in the Netherlands
• translate or point out your needs
• get information about the procedure for asylum seekers
• stay informed on the latest news
• know what to do, in case of an accident

This app is mainly directed to informing asylum seekers who have arrived in the Netherlands. We got to speak to Roek Lips, the initiator of this app, his story can be read later on.

Gherbtna

Gherbtna App QuoteMaster.org

Gherbtna in Arabic means loneliness, exile. This concept is one that many refugees can relate to. Gherbtna is also the name of an app designed for Syrians who are working to build a new life mainly in Turkey. This app also mainly meant to inform the asylum seekers. In the app you can find available job positions, news and information on studying in Turkey.

This app seems to go a step further than the Refugee Buddy app which provided basic information on life in the Netherlands. Gherbtna actually goes further in the process of settling down in Turkey. The app was designed by Mojahed Akil, a 25 year old who himself migrated to Turkey in 2013. We got to ask him some questions about the app, which can be read later on in the article.

Refugermany

Refugermany App C. Jaye

Refugermany is another app that aims to inform asylum seekers on their new environment. As the name already suggest the app is directed to asylum seekers in Germany. The app provides information on asylum procedures, transportation, working in Germany and so on. Later on in the article you can read on the motivation behind this app, as we got some inside information from one of the makers of the app.

Refuchat

Refuchat App Funzypics.com

Refuchat is another German app, what stands out about this app is that it’s not mainly directed to the asylum seekers themselves but toward helpers and paramedics that work with refugees but don’t speak their language. Even though the app isn’t actually meant to be used by asylum seekers it is relevant for this article; the app might not be designed to be used by asylum seekers, but it is definitely designed to help them.

Refugee Phrasebook

Refugee Phrasebook is more than only an app, as the video above explains: ‘it’s an open collection of useful words and phrases for refugees and helpers’. This collection is distributed in many different ways (print, website, app, etc.) so that as many people as possible have access to it. Aim of this is of course that communication between people of different backgrounds becomes possible or easier.

In the apps discussed above we can see that apps directed towards refugees mainly focus on providing them with information. As we have seen in Hasan’s story, apps for communication (such as Viber and Skype) are already in existence and in use so there is not so much need for communication apps as there is for informative apps. Of course there also apps that focus on communication (Refuchat, Refugee Phrasebook) but not in the sense that is first thought of in this context. The apps on communication focus on bridging language gaps that exist between two groups (asylum seekers and inhabitants of the country they have ended up in).

App makers

When it comes to apps, we should not only consider the people using the apps but also the people who are behind the making of these apps (Refugee Buddy, Gherbtna and Refugermany). What inspired them to make these apps and how did they actually go to work? We got to speak to the people behind some of the previously mentioned apps and see what their process was like.

First of all we got to speak to Roek Lips, who took the initiative for the Refugee Buddy app. ‘The idea (for the app, red.) came to be because of a picture we saw in the newspaper last summer of a boy, a refugee, who was taking a picture of himself, a selfie, on the beach in Greece’, Roek explains. Because of this picture the question rose how you would be able to use the phone as well and that’s how the idea for Refugee Buddy came to be.

Lips took this idea to the Red cross and they thought it would be an interesting idea, from there it was picked up and an app builder was involved for the technical aspect of the project. There were also people involved who, together with Lips, took up the editorial job. Of course there are also people involved in the stage of distribution. The Red Cross initially invested money, and they also involved other parties in this. The whole process went fast; the idea came up at the end of September 2015, in December the first version was done.

What started with a picture in a newspaper now is one of the main information facilities for asylum seekers in the Netherlands. Lips explains: ‘we also work together with (the ministry of, red.) Security and Justice and IND and COA, the GCD, the Aliens Police, Vluchtelingenwerk, well you name it’. These are all starring members who are affiliated with accompanying refugees, Lips meet with representatives of these groups regularly, they also spread their information via the app. Also Klaas Dijkhoff, Undersecretary for Security and Justice, knows to find Lips when he has information to share via the app.

Initially the app primarily focused on the refugees who had just arrived in the Netherlands. If you know nothing and you’re not yet in the process (of getting a residence permit) you don’t get any information from COA. Lips explains that they thought that ‘information nowadays is also a form of emergency aid’. Refugees themselves were involved in the development in content and they still are.

'information nowadays is also a form of emergency aid’ - Roek Lips, maker of the Refugee Buddy app

The project group is already focusing on the future, Lips says: ‘we’re also already talking about a second version and we’re actually thinking about a third version that focuses on integration for when people have a residence permit. So we’re expanding it that way’. The content of the app is adjusted to the needs of the asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

As we have seen before, the app Gherbtna is developed by Mojahed Akil, a 25 year old who himself migrated to Turkey in 2013. The main reason for him to create this app ‘is to help Syrian refugees to get a better and easier life by providing them with information’. He came up with the idea when he came to Turkey and faced a lot of difficulties with living in Turkey. He receives a lot of feedback, but ‘the main one is the app is very useful and helpful’.  Akil explains that the project isn’t funded by external parties. There is an advertising section on the website and the Facebook Page so that is how the app is funded.

We also got some inside information from Marius Luther from Refugermany. He explains that ‘it's essentially a digital version of a welcome guide that volunteers have been printing and handing out to refugees in Berlin before and we thought it could help to have an app that can easily be updated and doesn't cost additional money for each printed copy’. Also in the making of this app, refugees were involved in deciding what sort of content the app would need.

As we can see the main reason for these app makers to have made their apps is to help out the refugees. They saw that asylum seekers were using their phones and that they needed information so they linked these two facts and provided information through apps. The content of the apps is heavily depended on the needs of the asylum seekers, who were also involved in the making of the apps. With this have become the new way to spread information among asylum seekers.