Mobile app to help Indian workers in distress launched in Oman

Muscat: MigCall, an android based mobile application, which instantly saves helpline numbers in smartphones for link with the Indian embassy, was launched by Indian ambassador Indra Mani Pandey on Friday.
Embassy’s helpline
Urging expatriates to use the app, the Indian Ambassador said: “Indians should download the app and spread the app news so that they can access the embassy’s helpline numbers in their smartphone call list and just dial for help when they are in distress. The app was unveiled at the Indian embassy auditorium on Friday evening.
More than 300 people, including 250 workers from different company camps attended the function. “It is a useful app. Not only for workers, but any Indian can be connected to the embassy,” Shafi Kaipuram, who brought some 40 Indians to function told Times of Oman.
The mobile app ‘MigCall’, based on the Android OS platform with a file size of 2.8 MB, is available at Google Playstore in various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali and English.
“The app can be used by any Indian in a GCC country. The person has to save only his foreign country and province, accordingly. If the user registers his home country as India and host country as the UAE, then five UAE helpline numbers will be saved, in addition to five helpline numbers belonging to India,” said Jose Chacko, the co-founder of the app.
The app was conceived by Rejimon K, a migrant rights activist and journalist with a leading English daily in Oman. The main feature of this mobile app is that once downloaded, it can be used even offline in the absence of an internet connection.
The app will automatically save 10 Helpline numbers onto the call list. When a user registers his home country as India and host country as Oman, then five main helpline numbers available in Oman will be saved, in addition to five helpline numbers belonging to India. In addition to helpline numbers, the app also provides helpline numbers for passport services, counselling services, local police numbers and hospital numbers. Notably, it also provides a feature to send an SOS message to an emergency number, chosen by the user, during a crisis.
Additionally, the app will provide a user’s GPS location to the nearest Indian embassy office.