Trial in Brussels postponed due to lack of interpreter English-…
The Brussels criminal court had to postpone a trial with several suspects on Friday because there was no interpreter to translate for the suspects. It is remarkable that this was not a language that was rarely spoken, but a search was made for a French-Dutch interpreter. This is reported by the Beë Vertalers en Tolken (BBVT) professional association.
Source: BELGA
“On March 1, 2021, more than 250 Dutch-French interpreters were listed in the National Register of Translators and Interpreters,” said Henri Boghe, spokesperson for the BBVT. At the end of 2016, the register was considered an “objective” and “transparent” central system by the previous Minister of Justice, Koen Geens, for appointing translators and interpreters during court cases and interrogations.
A survey of some of its members sworn in for Dutch-French of the BBVT today shows that they were never even contacted for this morning’s assignment in Brussels. Requests can therefore also be made to the calculation of the booking system that is originally and to the database of the National Register of Translators and Interpreters.”
No pay for six months
What is worse is that many interpreters and translators, especially from Brussels and Halle-Vilvoorde, have been waiting for months for compensation for services, according to the BBVT spokesperson: “From an answer to a parliamentary question in July, it appears that interpreters are offered to the Dutch-speaking court in Brussels. a payment arrears of about six months, for translators a arrears of two months. We are aware of cases where interpreters only receive a first response after eight about months of monthly invoices.”
“We hope that Minister Van Quickenborne will seize the umpteenth embarrassment for Justice today to resume consultations with the sector and to make corrections in the foreseeable future and to enable market-based compensation for interpreters and translators in criminal cases,” said Henri Boghe.
Ten vacancies
The FPS Justice states in a response that payment arrears have arisen, not all invoices are caused within a procedural period. The cause of this would be understaffing at the responsible services. “To solve assignments, ten vacancies have been posted. Eight of those ten functions have been worked out. This reinforcement should be the start of eliminating the backlog and improving the invoicing processing times,” said Sharon Beavis, spokeswoman for the FPS Justice, in a response.
However, the FPS Justice disputes that the lack of an interpreter at this specific session has anything to do with the functioning of the National Register of Translators and Interpreters. “The system for engaging interpreters in this way for judicial assignments is now well established and runs smoothly,” says the spokeswoman. The FPS Justice investigates what went wrong, for example an unforeseen absence of human error.