Interpretation at “A Study Meeting for the Protection of Refugees and Asylum- seekers

[Date and Time] Thursday, February 18, at 11:30-12:45
[Spots] Annex of the House of Councilors
[Host Groups] Amnesty International Japan, Catholic Tokyo International Center, Support 21 Social Welfare Foundation, Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees, Nankiren, and Japan Association for Refugees
[Presenter] Mr. Daniel Alkhal (Senior Protection Officer of UNHCR Representation in Japan)
[Attendant] 1 KSGG member
[Language] English into Japanese

By request from the President of Nankiren to KSGG, I interpreted the presentation simultaneously at a study meeting where 7 or 8 Diet members and secretaries were present. I covered the first half of Mr. Alkahal’s 40 minutes’ presentation titled “Guidelines on International Protection and Today’s Refugee Situations,” the contents of which were about general topics, such as the definition of refugees and asylum-seekers, and what our protection and programs ought to be. The second half of his presentation, which was about technical topics, was interpreted by Protection Assistant of UNHCR. The attendants heard our interpretation by using earphones just like they do at international conferences. I learned by heart more than 300 technical terms on refugees and International Laws offered by UNHCR and collected relevant information beforehand. Mr. Alkahal said to me, “Thank you very much. You must have had a hard time, for I spoke so fast and used a lot of technical words.” Also, the Protection Assistant thanked me. However, I regretted I could not provide a perfect interpretation, for I was unable to concentrate my attention for 20 minutes. I learned a lot through this meeting, and I am sure KSGG will be concerned with the problem of refugees in our activity of teaching Japanese to foreign people. I hope my volunteer work was helpful for UNHCR and all the groups including Nankiren working for this problem, and for refugees and asylum-seekers.