Czech Ministry launches a mobile app to help Ukrainians and other foreigners

12. 4. 2022
As part of its activities to help refugees from Ukraine, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic is launching a mobile phone application called Smart Migration. The app allows foreigners to easily find answers in Ukrainian, English, and Russian to situations they need to deal with after arriving in the Czech Republic, including employment, healthcare, or education. The app was created by a team of researchers from Mendel University in Brno. It was originally developed for foreigners coming to the Czech Republic to work. Computer scientists from the Faculty of Business and Economics at MENDELU have now adapted it to the needs of Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression.

The aim is to inform refugees about the registration system and the conditions that the state has prepared for them under the newly adopted law (Lex Ukraine). The information will be gradually updated and supplemented. A key part of the application are interactive tutorials that make it easier to find the necessary information. The user can also ask questions to the virtual assistant who will guide him/her through the solution of the problem.

From the beginning, the project took into account that legislation is constantly changing and people providing assistance to foreigners are usually very busy. “So we wanted to create a solution where the content can be easily updated and it doesn’t bring a big administrative burden. That’s why we created a solution that can train a digital assistant from common texts entered into the app with minimal extra work. We don’t want the app to be a burden for the staff, but to get the key information out to strangers with minimal work, thus saving them from explaining the same trivial problems over and over again. This will give them more time to deal with specific, more complex situations,” said Dr. David Procházka.

The application was created by the team of the Faculty of Operations and Economics of Mendel University in Brno within the project Smart Migration in the Czech Republic, in which Metropolitan University Prague also participates. The project was financially supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR).

The Ukrainian Initiative in the Czech Republic (UICR), an umbrella diaspora organisation in the Czech Republic, is also involved in the Smart Migration project (www.smartmigration.cz). In cooperation with the UICR, experts from the MIOK educational institute at Lviv Polytechnic University provided feedback on the content of the mobile application. “It is great that such an app was created in our country. It can help many Ukrainians, among whom we will promote it through our channels,” says Bohdan Rajčinec, President of UICR.

Contact for more information. Dr. David Procházka, david.prochazka@mendelu.cz, Department of Informatics (PEF), tel.: +420 545 132 240

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