Malaga Migration Hackathon is part of easyRights, a European H2020 project with a simple goal: to combine co-creation and AI technology to make it easier for immigrants to understand and access the services they are entitled to. Bringing together immigrants, the public sector and private organisations, easyRights will develop a platform to provide personalised, context-aware information to its users, taking into account background, demographics and language skills. Fully online, the intensive 72-hour will provide the collaborative and engaging environment to transform solution ideas into prototypes. The winner of the hackathon will conduct a 5000€ contract, that must be used to further develop the project, in collaboration with easyRights technical team and the municipality of Málaga. Developed platform will support immigrants in their search for responses for different needs in a manner that saves time for both migrants and for social service staff and cutting costs for the public administration. The easyRights platform is being developed and deployed in four pilot locations (Birmingham, Larissa, Palermo and Malaga).
The challenge
Many migrants with strong cases for asylum severely struggle through the journey, leading some to avoid the service or drop out at some point of the process as they do not understand the procedure to apply successfully. A tool that simplifies a migrant’s ability to access and follow correct information about the asylum process, will ease the access to the protection they seek. Therefore, the main challenge you will address during the hackathon is the creation of an innovative and feasible solution to break down the language and information barriers around the asylum-seeking procedures. The result will allow immigrants to more easily understand and execute their rights when applying for asylum.
Participants and procedures
The hackathon is open to approximately 20-30 participants. We truly believe in diversity and collaboration to find meaningful and context-rooted solutions. Therefore, regardless of their background or nationality, the participants we seek should respond to the broad (and specific) description of visionaries, developers, designers, marketers entrepreneurs, engineers, migrants & field experts.
- Registration through: https://www.easyrights.eu/malaga-hackathon
- Registration opening: 14th December 2020
- Registration closing: 8th January 2021
- Hackathon event: 21th, 22th, 23th January 2021
- Contacting the winners: 3rd February 2021
- Implementation of creation: ASAP
More information can be found here.
Why Hackathon is needed?
In 2018, Spain became one of the leading recipients of refugees and migrants in Europe. Each year, thousands of migrants continue reaching Spain seeking safety and opportunities. While some leave their home countries to get a job or an education, others escape from persecution or human rights violations such as torture. Millions flee from armed conflicts or other crises or violence. Some no longer feel safe and might have been targeted just because of who they are or what they do or believe – for example, for their ethnicity, religion, sexuality or political opinions. In these cases of persecution and serious human right violation, they seek protection in another country. Seeking asylum is a human right, so everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum. Despite the fact that Spain and the European Union have clear protocols for applying for asylum, many migrants do not know where to find and how to find this information. Even when they do find asylum data, it is not always available in their native language. Let’s join forces to provide the needed support and missing tools to empower migrant communities to receive the safety and protection they seek. By participating in this hackathon, you and your team will be part of the solution for one of the greatest humanitarian challenges of our time.