No Translator Present

It is common practise for authorities – either during pushbacks or in other situations – to try to force people on the move to sign documents or engage in legal procedures without access to a translator. This is against international law: it violates the right to due process (such as Article 9(2) ICCPR, and the right to fair procedure established in the European Convention on Human Rights.

He reports that the transit group was brought to a police station near the town of Slunj and were detained there for what the respondent described felt like around 8 hours. According to him the 4 members of the group had no access to food, water or the possibility to use the toilet. As one person asked to go to the toilet the respondent recalls that they have been laughed at.  The respondent states that The police took their fingerprints and made them sign a form. Recalls  that the form was in a language they couldn’t understand. There was no translator present.

Respondent in Bihać

Without access to a translator, people do not have the opportunity to understand or object to the procedures which are being taken against them. For this reason, we often meet people who have been forced to sign documents they did not understand by police. Sometimes these documents are asylum applications, meaning that if they try to apply for asylum in another country they will be deported back, and sometimes the documents are admissions of guilt to legal charges, or ‘voluntary return’ documents. Despite this practise being systemic, widely documented, and a blatant violation of international law, authorities in other EU countries will often try to hold people to the documents that they were forced to sign, even if a translator was not present and the person did not understand the documents they were signing.