Basel-Stadt social welfare chatbot supports Ukrainian asylum seekers

The social welfare department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt is responsible for supporting asylum seekers. The office offers assistance with accommodation, care, employment and integration.

Initial situation

Due to the war in Ukraine, many people have had to leave their homeland and are now increasingly seeking asylum in Switzerland.
The Basel-Stadt social welfare office receives asylum seekers and provides them with accommodation and financial support. This involves various administrative tasks that have to be carried out by the office, but also by the asylum seekers themselves. For many asylum seekers, this is a very demanding and challenging situation, as they are not familiar with the country, the laws and, above all, the language.

Idea & realization

The chatbot was developed in anticipation of a major wave of asylum seekers in May 2022 to provide asylum seekers with the most important information as quickly, directly and efficiently as possible and to direct them to the correct contact and contact points.
The bot provides help in Ukrainian and German with matters relating to accommodation, financial support and health insurance, and offers information on contact addresses and opening hours.

According to Emmanuel Salmon, ICT Project and Application Manager at the Department of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs (WSU) of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, the bot has met with a positive response internally:

Thanks to the chatbot, we were able to quickly and efficiently support refugees from Ukraine with information (in either German or Ukrainian) and at the same time relieve the burden on Infoline's social welfare staff.
The fast and uncomplicated implementation with the aiaibot team convinced us.

Further chatbot projects are planned for the canton of Basel-Stadt in the near future.