Disrupted Access: How the Lack of Interpretation Services is Denying Asylum Seekers Their Rights in Greece
Asylum offices exist to ensure that asylum seekers have access to their rights. They are responsible for coordinating applicants’ initial registrations and interviews, issuing decisions and organising appeals when asylum applications are unsuccessful, among other responsibilities. Through this process, asylum seekers access international protection, for example by becoming a recognised refugee. While in this process, asylum offices also issue papers which protect applicants from being arrested by the police when out and about in the city and ensure access to the labour market and to healthcare.
However, for the past two months, these essential services have come to a standstill due to the lack of available interpretation in asylum offices. As a result, employees cannot communicate with a large proportion of the population who they are employed to support; appointments are indefinitely postponed. While the responsibility for this disruption lies with the asylum service, it is asylum seekers who suffer. Applicants are left in legal limbo, unable to move forward with their claims for international protection, which deprives them of vital services and security. This situation is especially critical for asylum seekers waiting for subsequent claims, as they are left without documents to protect them from arrest or detention, particularly with the increasing presence of police in the city.
Applicants are often only informed that their appointments will not take place when they arrive at the asylum office, prepared for their scheduled appointments. In some cases, appointments are postponed multiple times, causing asylum seekers to miss school or work and travel long distances, especially those living in camps. These direct and indirect costs are not reimbursed.
Asylum office employees are often unaware of when interpretation services will be available again. In some instances, applicants have waited so long that they agree to do their interviews in English. Reports have also surfaced of applicants being asked to use Google Translate or bring their own interpreters, who may lack the necessary skills and support. Furthermore, the Asylum Service does not verify whether the interpreter speaks both languages fluently. In these situations, the Asylum Service clearly fails to fulfil its responsibility to provide applicants with an equal opportunity to express themselves in their mother tongue during these potentially life-changing appointments, ensuring that their words are interpreted accurately.This is a repeated and ongoing problem; for years the collaboration between the Ministry of Migration and Asylum (MoMA) and interpretation providers has been unstable, as MoMA fails to pay them consistently. Indeed, in May 2024, Metadrasi pulled out of their agreement with MoMA after waiting 7 months for payment. After 10 years of the so-called “refugee crisis” there is no excuse for this ongoing failure to give people access to their rights. Mazí Housing is joining the efforts of other NGOs to raise awareness to the issue and has signed the statement, calling for an end to the disruption of interpretation services undermining asylum seekers’ rights in Greece.
Written by Lara Stauss and Orsalia Papadimitriou
