Professional Translators in trouble
When a translator faces death from both sides. In a war zone, for soldiers the translator’s work is very important for their lives. However, who cares for the life of a translator hunted and accused for collaboration?
When a translator faces death from both sides. In a war zone, for soldiers the translator’s work is very important for their lives. However, who cares for the life of a translator hunted and accused for collaboration?
In fact, the translator who plays an important logistic role
is not protected enough. The charge of treason
can be levelled against them from either side of the conflict. So, it is sometimes either the jail or death for the same reason, but not for enough
reason.
To see a translator in jail means that there is a
translation or interpreting task for them to do. It happens that a translator is in trouble
because of a crime they have committed. However,
to be in prison just because you are a translator for an enemy group, tribe or
country is something quite serious.
From the other side, some interpreters and translators are
killed because of the task they were performing. Those who have worked with American forces on
lands they occupied faced execution charges from the side of local resistance
forces. In Iraq, a translation company
lost around 200 of its employees in one year, a couple of years ago.
As tragedy begets tragedy, some onsite interpreters and
translators found themselves victims of side road bombs or direct attacks from
rebellions as thee were accompanying army forces. The hunting of translators who were considered
collaborators of the enemy didn’t stop while there is no serious the
intervention from the side of many international organisations.
What remains quite astonishing is that doctors, lawyers,
journalists and news reporters are more respected and better protected by
international bodies. The world needs to
unite to protect professional interpreters and translators in the same way it
does with the above mentioned professionals working in countries of
trouble. The accusation of being a
collabo should not be levelled against people who objectively and
professionally do their jobs without having to side with either party. The hunting
of translators and interpreters at times of war and political upheavals should
be stopped.
The USA Army, for example, has more than 14,000 linguists
(interpreters, transcribers and translators) working for it to provide their
services on the spot. They read and
translate local media and leaflets, participate in the interrogatories of
people and soldiers of hostages. It also
employs private agencies and spends huge amounts of money on them.
Although countries like the USA have started looking for
other solutions that may lead to the replacement of human translators, they
have not thought of protecting the translators they work for them. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has started exploring the
possibility of automating translators by creating a future robot which, not
only translates speech, but also provides an accurate professional translation
of the documents it comes across. This revolutionary
project is promoting, it is not likely to replace the smart human mind. Until this dream is realised with all the
anticipated levels of success and failure, the translator remains a condemned
and threatened from both sides.
Almiaad Lingua
has a team of onsite translators who participate in military mission; Thank God
we have experienced no tragedies so far.
It is because we value our staff.
How does a translator become a collaborator?
ReplyDeleteI believe translators are not all the same, not all professional...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: I think you mean: how can a translator be taken for a collaborator?
ReplyDeleteI agree that professional language services should be taken more seriously. You are right - translators and interpreters working overseas for military purposes must be given more protection. They are doing this in the services of the country, after all.
ReplyDelete