Issue 54 October 2021

This newsletter comes shortly after the August newsletter, owing to important information to share on a number of issues.

New Interpreter Co-ordinator 

Hi all, my name is Wajiha Azimi. I am sure some of you will know me as I worked as an interpreter for a couple of languages with immigration previously.

I am a medical doctor by profession but out of touch with medicine for more than 12 years now. I have been working with the Refugee Status Unit as a support officer for the last 4 years and I am so excited to now work as the Interpreter Co-ordinator and to be involved with the excellent work you all do.

I am looking forward to working with you all.

Update from the Refugee Status Unit

We are continuing to work from home. Most interviews are being cancelled, but we are conducting as many as we can remotely, using either Microsoft Teams or Zoom. All phone calls and emails are being answered as normal.

Update from the Refugee Quota Programme

The Refugee Quota Programme staff are working extremely hard, with the assistance of staff from other areas of Immigration, to help resettle the Afghanis recently arrived from Afghanistan. Some of our Dari and Pashto interpreters have been working at the Nesuto Hotel with these clients. Thanks for all your hard work!

While Auckland remains under alert level 3, the Refugee Quota Programme has gradually started to resettle refugees into their new homes. 45 residents have been resettled leaving 180 people at Te Āhuru Mōwai o Aotearoa. More residents are planned to depart, thus creating room to start bringing refugees who were deferred due to the Covid lockdown since August and a number of emergency cases. The October intake will start arriving from the 27th of October.

In addition, RQP staff are currently testing ways to safely enhance our remote interviewing capabilities to progress work without compromising the MRRC bubble. The success of this work is in part reliant on our interpreters being tech savvy and comfortable with the MS teams platform.

Language Assistance Services Programme: update

The latest newsletter includes a lot of important information about the Ezispeak telephone interpreting services, as well as updates on other parts of the programme. Please be sure to read it.

Are you receiving the Language Assistance Services Monthly Newsletter? To subscribe email LAS@mbie.govt.nz with the subject ‘Subscribe’. 

Introducing new Refugee and Protection Officers at RSU

Artika Kapoor

Kia Ora everyone!

My name is Artika Kapoor and I am very excited to be starting my journey as an RPO.

I’ve been working since I was 16 years old in various different roles and have been with MBIE for just over 18 months. I completed my LLB last year and am super keen to put it to use with this role.

Outside of work I enjoy being a bit of a social butterfly, travelling (pre-covid) and hanging out with my dog Malibu! Look forward to meeting and working with you all.

Laura Braid

Kia ora, my name is Laura Braid. I am very excited to join the RSU as an RPO. I graduated from the University of Otago in 2016 with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Political Studies). I spent 3 years in private practice as a solicitor, and then took a year off to travel through Latin America. I have since kept up learning Spanish and would love to become fluent one day. I recently completed an LLM in International Law and Politics at the University of Canterbury, and expect to formally graduate at the end of this year. Much of my studies was focused on human rights and refugee law so I am really excited to now be working in this area.

I look forward to meeting and working with you all! 

Mohamud Mohamed

I’m passionate about and committed to promoting refugee and human rights issues.

Born in Somalia I came to New Zealand as a young child. Before joining the RSU I worked as a Policy Advisor within MBIE. I have a Master of Arts (Hons) in Policy Studies and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Social Sciences and Conflict Resolution. I was a finalist in the Kiwibank Local Hero category of the 2018 New Zealander of the Year Awards. I worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and also taught New Zealand Politics and Co-operative Education at the Auckland University of Technology. I’m excited to join the team as an RPO and look forward to working with all of you.

Shuko Chikuni

Hi everyone! My name is Shuko Chikuni and I am so excited to join the RSU as a RPO. I am a Zambian South African and New Zealand became my home 4 years ago. I completed my Bachelor of laws in South Africa at the University of Pretoria. I am also a recent Master of Laws graduate from the University of Auckland. My Masters was centred on human rights law which is my passion. So being able to work in refugee law is a dream come true. I love to travel and visit new places in New Zealand. I also enjoy being creative, helping and connecting with people. I look forward to meeting and working with you all going forward.

 
We have 2 other new RPOS and will introduce them to you in the next newsletter.

New home for interpreter reference resources

Interpreters have their own resource page which has many useful tools, such as immigration and refugee related terminology.

Interpreters online toolkit

Rare languages

Recently we have been searching for interpreters in:

• Mongolian
• Kiribati
• Tokelauan
• Nuiean
• Malay
• Kinyarwanda
• Rohingya
• Tigrinya
• Turkish
• Tongan
• Samoan
• Bengali
• Tamil (Sri Lankan)
• Burmese, Kayah and Chin
• Cambodian/Khmer
• Fijian
• Te Reo Māori
• Ndebele
• Pashto         
• Swahili
• Tagalog
• Luganda
• Igbo
• Amharic

If you know anyone who interprets one of these, or another rare language, please ask them to get in touch with me. We have over 100 languages on our list, but it’s still not enough!

This year we needed interpreters in 35 different languages, ranging from Arabic and Mandarin to Mongolian and Malay. Thank you all for your contribution!

Glossaries

Refugee and protection claims based on a person’s religion or beliefs are common. The terms used by some religious groups can be unfamiliar, or carry a special meaning.

To help with your preparation for these types of interviews we have added some new glossaries to the Interpreters online toolkit page. These glossaries include Falun Gong and Church of Almighty God which is specifically for interpreters of Chinese languages.

If you feel there are any other areas that would benefit from a glossary being created please let us know. 

Interpreters online toolkit

On the same page, under ‘Further self-study’, you can find feedback from our interpreter dilemma training.