“In every country dogs bite”… All around the world Complaints are common against hiring, for financial reasons only, underqualified translators and interpreters, and the subsequent lowering of professional standards. And they are now behind this protest in the UK. The campaign “Speak Up, Speak Out” will be launched next Thursday, 20 October 2011, in the House of Commons.
Its aim is to protestagainst outsourcing of Interpreting services in the UK, after an agreement has been signed between the Ministry of Justice and an external agency (Applied Language Solutions), to supply interpreters for courts and tribunals.
The National Union of Professional Interpreters and Translations is worried that this will jeopardize the quality of interpretationin the Justice System, and also compromise the privacy of personal data (the agency’s overseas call-centre could cause sensitive personal data relating to interpreters and their clients to be exported to other countries).
Indeed, in Spain the privatization of interpreting services for the police, carried out in 2008, has brought about disastrous consequences, due to the implication of the“interpreters” in the investigated crimes, as repoted by Interviu.
“This should interest everyone in the translation and interpreting community, within and outside the UK, since it raises issues relating to an evolving relationship between translators/interpreters and the state and concerns a template which may well be adopted in other countries in future. Unless of course the international community unites to do something about it.I think it is important for would be translators and interpreters to be aware of what is happening in the market, and reflect on it.”(Professor Mona Baker, University of Manchester.)
More information about the “Speak up Speak out” campaign at Unite.
