Jacobs & Maryns (2022) on narrative co-construction and credibility. Maryns & Jacobs (2025) on languages of lesser diffusion and the right to interpretation.
Policy briefing / June 2026
Interpretation Failure in the UK Asylum System
Two reforms: qualified interpreters, and original-language records kept beside the English version. If AI touches asylum evidence, it should touch what was actually said.
Applicant speechI cannot say this here.
Official recordI do not know.
Credibility finding
The problem
The record is not what was said. It is what survived.
An asylum seeker speaks through an interpreter. The English version becomes the record. That record decides whether they are believed. It can decide whether they stay.
The Home Office buys interpretation through a chain: Home Office to contractor, contractor to agency, agency to interpreter. Cost drives the chain. Quality comes after.
The damage is documented. Interpreters can work without guaranteed qualifications. Audio captures the applicant speaking in their own language. The written transcript records only English: the interpreter's rendering, treated as the applicant's words. The original-language transcript does not exist.
The evidence
One year following the failure.
Interviews with immigration lawyers, barristers, interpreters, and caseworkers.
The Home Office procurement framework, NRPSI, and DPSI accreditation structures.
Case studies from Belgian and Afghan asylum proceedings.
The ICIBI 2023 inspection: interpreter shortages, cancelled interviews, dialect mismatch, and missing quality assurance.
Parts of this research are published with the Refugee Law Initiative, University of London, and the Legal Action Group. The full argument is in The Manifesto of Translational Justice (2026). For the Government's own inspection evidence, read the ICIBI inspection post.
The reforms
Put it in the contracts.
Mandatory accreditation for all interpreters in asylum proceedings
The Diploma in Public Service Interpreting is the main UK qualification for legal and public service interpreting. Home Office asylum contracts do not require it.
Tier 1 - common languages
Require DPSI accreditation, or an equivalent qualification measured against DPSI standards, where a qualified pool exists. Contractors and agencies must prove compliance.
Tier 2 - languages of lesser diffusion
Where full DPSI qualification is unavailable, require a language-specific pathway run by an independent body. Test legal accuracy, ethics, and awareness of what interpretation failure does.
Mandatory transcription and retention of the applicant's testimony in their own language
Audio captures the room, including the applicant speaking in their own language. The transcript records only English: the interpreter's rendering, attributed to the applicant. Decisions, credibility findings, and appeals work from that document.
The original stays as unanalysed audio. Nobody transcribes it. Nobody checks it against the English version. It never enters the decision chain.
Dr Laura Smith-Khan has shown how multilingual interactions become monolingual documents. The interpreter is in the room, then disappears on paper.
Transcribe and retain the original-language testimony beside the English record. If someone challenges the interpretation, there should be something to check.
The purpose is not surveillance. It is accountability. If the interpretation is challenged, there must be something to check it against.
Where AI is used in asylum decision-making, it must operate on the original language testimony
The Home Office's Asylum Case Summarisation tool summarises an English transcript that has already passed through interpretation. Original speech. Interpreter's English. AI summary. Three layers.
A March 2026 legal opinion by Cloisters Chambers and Doughty Street Chambers found that Home Office AI use in asylum cases is likely unlawful when applicants are not told and cannot challenge what happened.
We built a Tigrinya summarisation model to show that original-language processing can be done. The fix is simple: preserve the applicant's own words, then build from there.
The ask
Check the chain. Keep the original. Hear evidence.
- Check interpreter accreditation in the Home Office asylum procurement chain. Put the two-tier framework into the contracts.
- Check record-keeping for asylum interviews. Require transcription and retention of original-language testimony.
- Where AI is used in asylum decision-making, make it work from original-language testimony.
- Invite Translational Justice to give evidence on either question.
These reforms do not need new legislation. They need contract requirements. The mechanism exists. The will is the missing part.