A woman once said her mom was ‘Turkish’—but the interpreter said ‘cook.’ Big difference, right? That small mistranslation almost cost her legal protection. 

Another real case: An asylum seeker from Mauritania was assigned an interpreter who spoke Fulani—but from a different dialect. The interpreter misunderstood much of what he said, and the written record ended up full of errors. Even after correcting it later with a better interpreter, the judge found contradictions and denied his case. Ouch. 

Even small translation mistakes in forms can hurt you. A Venezuelan couple filled out their asylum paperwork on their own. Same case as their son, but theirs got denied due to inconsistencies caused by language issues. Their son got approved. They had to wait years and go before a judge to finally get protection. All because of small translation mix-ups!