In official documents of the German Federal Police concerning the expulsion of migrants from Germany to Poland, the translator's signature is as necessary as the signature of the German official and the migrant themselves. From documents in our editorial team's possession, however, it emerges that translators who are not German nationals sign some documents only illegibly or with an incomplete name. Unlike officials, they are not identified by first and last name. Why the identities of translators in Germany are non-transparent is at least one of many reasons that place administrative processes in immigration matters in this country under question. At the same time, it must be noted that the translator's role is decisive for a migrant's fate in Germany, since the main element of the asylum procedure is an interview at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which is conducted orally and often online via video. In some languages, such as Somali, Rundi, and languages from Rwanda, the German office itself acknowledges deficiencies. At times, interviews cannot be conducted in the asylum seekers' native language.

A great deal depends on the translator. Practically the entire fate of a migrant in Germany hinges on the translator. This begins with the very declaration of an asylum request. In German police chronicles, as well as in documents belonging to migrants expelled from Germany to Poland, there are comments describing allegedly insufficient asylum requests. Whether an asylum request was presented and justified clearly enough is in most cases assessed precisely by the translator.

Particularly in 2017–2018, there was repeated criticism of low pay, lack of qualifications, and violations of the neutrality requirement by translators employed by BAMF. During this period, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees terminated cooperation with more than 2,100 translators who had worked as interpreters without possessing a C1 German-language certificate in the most common target languages.

"At the peak of the refugee influx, the authorities did not require [...] membership in a professional association or the presentation of proof of skills,"

reports the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The issue of the status and role of translators at the German office BAMF has returned to the Bundestag in recent months, as the left-wing party Die Linke took an interest in the matter and submitted a parliamentary inquiry. In mid-December, the federal government responded to Die Linke's inquiry, and the first thing to note is that while the left-wing members of parliament ask about translators, the German government in its response consistently refers to them as language mediators with freelancer legal status.

"The pool of language mediators of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) comprises a total of 5,960 freelancers (as of November 7, 2024). (...) A breakdown by BAMF branch offices is not possible, since language mediators are not assigned to specific offices and typically carry out assignments at all offices."

As freelancers, translators can count only on service contracts with German agencies. There are no staff positions for them. The government acknowledges that these contracts are not subject to any rules or official pay scales but are negotiated individually and at the language mediator's own initiative. This obviously leads to a very high degree of dependency of translators on their German clients, which may affect their work and the reliability of translations.

In its response to the critical questions from Die Linke, the federal government stated that as part of quality assurance in language mediation, qualified personnel conduct random checks of language mediation services and extend voluntary invitations for feedback discussions.

[Aleksandra Fedorska is a journalist for Polish and German media outlets]

[Below is an example of an improperly signed document — an interrogation transcript of a person named Jammal. The name of the language mediator (Ger. "Sprachmittler") is missing — only an illegible signature. Jammal was expelled to Poland]