Germany's SAP working on migrant registration app

The free app will allow migrants to fill in personal data, education and work experience while still on the road

FRANKFURT: Europe's largest software maker SAP said on Wednesday it was working on a smartphone application to help migrants arriving in Germany to navigate bureaucracy and officials to register them.

The app would be free of charge to migrants and authorities, and the company was talking to government bodies to see if they could use it, said a spokesman. None had signed up so far, he added.

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About 92,000 migrants have reached Germany since the country threw open its borders to refugees from Syria's civil war this month. Most have a smartphone to keep in touch with relatives and get information about accommodation or border controls.

The app, produced as a charitable initiate by the company, will allow migrants to fill in personal data, details of any relatives in Germany, education and work experience while still on the road, the spokesman said.

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German officials would be able to access the registration forms from databases, allowing them to keep track of the refugees and monitor who is still in the country, added the company, based in Walldorf, southern Germany.

Officials in Munich, the first destination for many migrants, gave up even attempting to register the arrivals as more than 20,000 poured into the city over a single weekend this month, saying their mission was humanitarian.

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Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has predicted that 800,000 refugees will arrive in Germany this year, while other politicians have said there could be as many as a million.