We present key interim findings from the ongoing MaTIAS project, which focuses on developing a multilingual notification system for asylum reception centres in Belgium. This system integrates machine translation (MT) to enable staff to provide practical information to residents in their native language, thus fostering more effective communication. Our discussion focuses on three key aspects: the development of the multilingual messaging platform, the types of messages the system is designed to handle, and the evaluation of potential MT systems for integration.

This project aims to develop a multilingual notification system for asylum reception centres in Belgium using machine translation. The system will allow staff to communicate practical messages to residents in their own language. Ethnographically inspired fieldwork is being conducted in reception centres to understand current communication practices and ensure that the technology meets user needs. The quality and suitability of machine translation will be evaluated for three MT systems supporting all target languages. Automatic and manual evaluation methods will be used to assess translation quality, and terms of use, privacy and data protection conditions will be analysed.