Offline mobile app launched in Muscat for Indian workers in trouble

Muscat: An offline mobile app launched by the Indian mission here to provide assistance to Indian workers in the Gulf region, particularly in Oman, has been downloaded by 10,000 expatriates.

'MigCall' has become a handy tool for the workers who do not have access to internet to seek assistance whenever needed, particularly in emergency situation, Indian embassy said.

Indian Ambassador to Oman Indra Mani Pandey launched MigCall last month for the benefit of Indian workers. The app has been downloaded by 10,000 people till now, the embassy said in a statement.

MigCall is brain child of Rejimon K, a senior Indian journalist based in Oman, and developed in cooperation by Jose Chacko, an Indian businessman in the country.

The mobile app is available at Google Playstore in various Indian languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali and English.

Once downloaded, the app automatically saves ten Helpline numbers in the call list. When a user registers his home country as India and host country as Oman, for example, then, five main helpline numbers available in Oman are saved in addition to five helpline numbers in India.

Similarly, if the user registers his home country as India and host country as UAE, then, five UAE helpline numbers are saved in addition to five helpline numbers in India, the statement said.

At present, 'MigCall' provides helpline numbers of only six Gulf Corporation Council countries. The six GCC countries are Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In addition to helpline numbers, the app also provides helpline numbers of passport services, counseling services, local police numbers and hospital numbers, it said.

Notably, it also provides a facility to send an SOS message to an emergency number, chosen by the user, in an emergency situation. The app also provides GPS location to its nearest Indian Embassy.

On an average, helpline numbers are getting two to five calls per day from stranded workers in the GCC. The importance of the app to connect Expatriate Indians with Embassy officials cannot be overstated, the statement said.