3.10.1.1. Improving access 

In 2023, several EU+ countries adopted new legislation on the provision of interpretation services: Bulgaria amended its national asylum legislation to allow EUAA interpreters to support the registration and assessment of applications for international protection (5 EUAA staff and 28 interpreters)777 and Belgium prepared updates to its laws on the recruitment and status of interpreters, including improved remuneration. In other countries, recruitments initiatives were renewed or reinforced. For instance, Belgium used LinkedIn Recruiter to identify interpreters and Germany published vacancies on social media for interpreters of languages which are rare or in high demand.

EU+ countries also resorted to non-registered interpreters, case officers, cultural mediators, NGOs, students, other applicants, persons under temporary protection and international organisations to fulfil the need for interpretation in asylum procedures and reception.

Finally, in an attempt to alleviate the continued lack of interpreters, EU+ countries, such as Lithuania778 and Malta, have increasingly used remote interpretation. This was used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic and persisted to temporarily address the availability of interpretation.779 Malta equipped new facilities for legal professionals with a phone line system to access interpretation services remotely.