Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-06-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they and other EU member states are taking to increase the number of competent interpreters available for interviewing and assessing refugees on (1) the islands and mainland of Greece, and (2) in south-east Europe.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The UK continues to assist Member States facing particular migratory pressures and has responded to the request by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) for Member States to provide interpreters to support the function of the Greek asylum system.

The UK has offered up to 20 interpreters to help with the processing of migrants on the Greek Islands, a number of whom have already been deployed. We are working with EASO, the Greeks and the European Commission to plan further deployments. We also continue to work with Greece and the European Commission on how the UK can most effectively bolster their operational and deployment plan(s) and are very clear that we stand ready to do more.