Since March 2022, VOST Portugal has been cooperating with the Slovak Government due to the refugee crisis in Slovakia as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This cooperation includes the provision of the CONFIRM platform, tailored to the needs of the various departments, as well as the collection – together with a local NGO – of refugee data in order to respond more quickly and effectively to their needs.
On 25 October 2022, VOST Portugal received a letter from the Migration Office of the Ministry of the Interior, which we reproduce.
“On behalf of the Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior, and as Chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee on Migration and Integration of Slovakia, I confirm the timely intervention and irreplaceable role of VOST Portugal in providing my Office with an online data collection and analysis platform, displaying all the important data on the unprecedented flow of people fleeing the war in Ukraine via Slovakia.
My office, as well as the crisis management structures of the Ministry of Interior, with little or no experience in managing the biggest wave of migration since World War II, have been overwhelmed by the numbers. The institutional set-up as well as the IT architecture and operational mechanisms were too slow to react to the need to build a website with an open data source for state bodies and organisations involved in crisis management.
VOST Portugal intervened to help and in March 2022, in just a few weeks, created the operational platform “CONFIRM SK4U” which collects daily data on refugee flows inside and outside the country, their regional distribution, employment rates, school participation by children, and which is open to many other cross-checking and analysis applications.
The platform meets all the criteria of the GDPR in relation to data sharing, and has a public aspect or have some sections open only to those who need specific information in their department or ministry.
The most appreciated part of VOST Portugal's contribution was not only the speed with which the tool was delivered, but also the fact that, by making it available in open source, and free of charge, we were able to avoid a lengthy public procurement process, which would be necessary for this type of service.
(We will continue to) Use the tool to distribute, and manage, the questionnaires needed to improve the quality of humanitarian and integration services, available to more than 60,000 refugees currently residing in Slovakia.
I cannot fail to stress the importance of timely and professional intervention by VOST Portugal / VOST Europe, and its open source platform “CONFIRM”, to help my office and the Slovak Government in these difficult times”
Jan Orlvoski, Bratislava, 25 October 2022
English