Google's Arabic-German translations surge amid migrant influx

As Middle Eastern migrants flocked to Germany, Google said Friday demand for its Arabic-German translation service had surged five-fold, urging native speakers to help improve the service.

The EU's top economy this year expects to take in between 800,000 and one million asylum-seekers, many from war-torn Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Communication between refugees and aid workers is currently a major challenge," said Google Germany in a statement.

"Many manage with the help of Google Translate, which is why we have seen a five-fold increase of translations from Arabic within Germany this year.

"Unfortunately the automatic translators are not always accurate, which is why we ask especially Persian and Arabic speakers to use their language skills to optimise the translation service," the Internet giant added.

It urged people who speak one of those languages as well as German to lend their expertise via the website

© 2015 AFP