Challenge with interpreters

THE magistrates courts have a challenge finding proper interpreters for foreign nationals who come before them. Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Tricia Hudlin-Cooper made this disclosure at the JSC hearing yesterday.

Responding to a question from committee memebr, Opposition MP Vidia Gayadeen-Gopeesingh, Hudlin-Cooper said the challenges with interpreters being faced today is not much different from that the courts having been facing over the years.

While the high court has a fixed list of interpreters, Hudlin-Cooper said the magistrates court does not.

She explained that while some people who appear before the court speak Chinese, it is often Cantonese or Mandarin.

Hudlin-Cooper said the Office of the DPP encourages that interpreters be sourced independently. While it has helped to provide interpreters in the past, Hudlin-Cooper said it was important foreign nationals who appear before the court do not feel the system is “stacked against them.”