ReliefWeb

Geneva – The redesigned MigApp – the UN Migration Agency’s app for migrants – is available today (13/11) for download. The app’s interface has been reconfigured to include a dropdown menu and more user-accessible icons.

Additionally, MigApp 3.0 comes in four more languages – Chinese, Italian, Russian and Portuguese – bringing the total number of available languages to eight, including the original English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

MigApp is designed to help migrants make informed decisions during their journeys by simplifying access to secure and reliable migration-related information and services. The app also contains select UN Migration Agency (IOM) programmes, allowing the Organization to reach more migrants by leveraging the latest mobile technology. This new release merges MigApp with the MigrantApp, an IOM mobile app previously available in Mesoamerica.

“We are very excited about the introduction of MigApp to Mesoamerica and South America. This launch is a result of the strong collaboration and partnership between the Information and Communications Technology Division and the regional office in Costa Rica and country missions throughout Mesoamerica,” said Marietta Muwanga-Ssevume, IOM Chief Information Officer. “The teams worked very hard to combine the regional contextual information and services provided by the MigrantApp with the thematic information from MigApp to provide a greatly enhanced product.”

One highlight of this new release is the addition of contact information for over 1,700 services – under headings such as immigration and consular offices, human trafficking assistance and medical centres. Users can select up to five countries when accessing this information offline.

Migrants are now able to customize a page with their favourite MigApp feature and by country of interest. Other additions include migration tips, migration services and local news.

On the services side of the app, information about IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme now covers Bulgaria, Germany, Mozambique and Switzerland, in addition to Belgium, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands and Turkey, and other countries previously featured on the MigrantApp (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico).

MigApp contributes to IOM’s efforts to support Member States in fulfilling three Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• End modern slavery and human trafficking (SDG 8.7). MigApp’s Global Counter Trafficking Hotlines contains contact information for over 2,800 counter-trafficking hotlines worldwide;

• Reduce transaction costs of migrant remittances (SDG 10.C). MigApp’s Money Transfer feature lists the best exchange rates available, rewarding services with the lowest rates; and

• Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration (SDG 10.C). All of MigApp’s features provide information and services working toward this objective.

The first version of MigApp was released on 18 December 2017 as part of IOM’s transition to digital mobility. Mobile applications have created a new avenue of communication with migrants and new tools for IOM staff to conduct their work in remote areas. MigApp was developed thanks to financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the version 3.0 improvements thanks to the United States Department of State and the IOM Development Fund.

Download MigApp for Android or iOS.

For more information, please contact Alex Dougan at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 22 717 9352, Email: adougan@iom.int