France received nearly 120,000 asylum requests in 2019 – more than any EU country bar Germany. The numbers applying for protection have increased every year since 2015, but successive French governments have failed to match this rising demand with sufficient funding. One of the most glaring gaps is the lack of quality language interpreters, who play a critical role in the legal process.
On a rainy March morning, days before the coronavirus pandemic closed it to the public, seven people filed into a courtroom in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil.
At the table in the centre, a middle-aged man and his wife sat down. The man’s lawyer, a woman in her mid-sixties, introduced herself to her client by yelling at him to hurry up in a language he didn’t understand.
As people settled into their places, a woman with a red jacket and matching lipstick walked into the room and sat down next to the couple, introducing herself in Georgian before facing the judge.
It was the interpreter’s first meeting with the man asking for protection in France, and she was the sole link between him and the court, responsible for translating the judge’s questions into Georgian and the man’s responses into French – effectively conveying the political persecution, police brutality, and torture this asylum seeker said he experienced before fleeing Georgia.
The National Asylum Court, or CNDA, is the final chance for asylum seekers in the country to appeal a rejected claim. Last year, the CNDA heard 59,019 appeals. The hearings determine whether a person will be granted the right to remain in France and be protected under the law. When determining an asylum seeker’s credibility, language is paramount.
If rejected, asylum seekers are ordered to leave French territory. They have a 15-day window to file an appeal for residency on another basis, which is only granted in exceptional circumstances. Otherwise, people either leave the country on their own, get deported, or end up becoming undocumented.