UN app lets you know what life as a refugee is like

Apps do a lot of things. They provide us with entertainment, feed us news, and let us put pretentious filters on to photos of food. But they can also give us a glimpse into what it’s like to live as a refugee.

The United Nations’ refugee body the UNHCR has launched an app called “my life as a refugee”. The world body says that the app “brings to life the refugee experience and highlights some of the life-changing decisions and consequences faced by millions of refugees worldwide”.

The app lets you play as a refugee and gives you “a series of tough decisions and chance events” in “true-to-life quests” to try to reach safety.

The ultimate goal of the game is to “reunite with loved ones” and rebuild your life. The game features three stories whose characters are separated from their families while fleeing persecution or armed conflict.

The UNHCR claims that the stories in “My Life as a Refugee” are based on real-life events. The app is reportedly designed to “entertain and educate players with interactive narratives based on real-life experiences of families torn apart by conflict or persecution.”

“My Life as a Refugee” is available for Android with an iOS version set to come out soon.