Respond’s French Team helps clients win asylum cases in 2023
2023 has been a particularly difficult year, witnessing many upheavals and crises around the world, and the French Team, as always, has contributed to making the world a better place.
It was also a year of growth for the French Team, ending with a total of 106 linguists based in 30 countries around the world, all working to minimize linguistic inequalities and inequities.
Thanks to this team, the French Team worked on 217 projects. Our amazing interpreters covered hours of interpreting sessions, including immigrant and asylum cases. Together, we helped work with 38 organizations, as well as 10 individual cases.
Some of the key projects we have worked on include:
Pro bono translation of 64 pages for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti's (IJDH) biannual human rights update.
Subtitling of an 85-minute video conference on women's rights in Haiti and Burma/Myanmar, and the inequalities they face on a daily basis.
Translating 22 scripts for French speaking migrants seeking asylum in the Türkiye.
We closed the year with a project of 20 documents from Spanish into French involving a soldier from Columbia seeking asylum with his family in France. Documents included medical records, news articles, threats messages, etc. We couldn’t do this project without the French Team members’ dedication. For this project, the French Team welcomed an additional 10 translators. We are so grateful to have this team!!!
Wonderful news!
As part of our ongoing work with New York Law School, we worked with them on two projects for 6 months each, connecting them with two amazing translators/interpreters. After the asylum application and hearings, they shared the wonderful news that their two clients were granted asylum in the United States.
One case concerned an individual from Africa seeking asylum in the United States based on his sexual orientation.
The other case concerned an individual from Africa seeking asylum in the United States because of his political involvement.
Feedback from the client:
“Dear Respond Crisis Translation Team:
A huge thank you to all of you for your enormous help and support in coordinating interpreters and translators for our client, from Guinea. He was granted asylum today in front of the Immigration Judge in New York City and we are all thrilled with the result. He is working on his English and hopes to enter law or graduate school in the United States very soon.
We are most grateful to you all.”
