Council pays for 300 workers to translate into 105 languages
A COUNCIL is employing 15 times more interpreters than 10 years ago in a damning indictment of the £120million boom industry which grew under Labour.
The number of translators at the Milton Keynes Community Language Service has increased from 20 to 300 since 2000.
A huge influx of migrants means the centre now offers services in 105 languages compared with just a dozen in 2000.
Public spending campaigners and immigration experts said the Milton Keynes example underlined the need for a requirement on immigrants to speak English to ease the burden on the public purse.
Nationally, the cost of providing translators in the police, health, education and courts systems is estimated at more than £120million as a result of mass immigration.
In Milton Keynes, Bucks, obscure tongues such as Twi, the chief language in Ghana, Telugu, which is spoken in southern India, and Yoruba, used in Nigeria, are all catered for.
The centre provides a free 24-hour service to immigrants helping them understand housing, health, police and legal matters in Milton Keynes, Luton, Bedford and Northampton.
Staff are currently in the process of recruiting a further 20 interpreters and plan to add Pashto, an Afghan language, by the end of the year.
Gloria Drew, co-ordinator for the centre, said services were in “great demand” and the nature of users had changed significantly.
She said: “We have definitely seen a large increase in demand for our services and for different languages.
“When we first started we were helping those who were highly educated with professional jobs, such as doctors. Now their relatives have arrived and they are not as highly educated and need our help more.
“The interpreters all have a six-day training assessment, which is very intense because they have to learn all the terminology for social services, health and housing.”
The NHS is the biggest user of translation services nationally, spending an astonishing £50million a year on interpreters.
The police, courts and Crown Prosecution Service spend £44million; the education system spends £19million and local councils spend £11million – at a conservative estimate.
But Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the council should put more emphasis on encouraging immigrants to speak English.
He said: “Many council translators end up dealing with people who have lived here for years without learning English.
“It’s ridiculous that people are claiming benefits for years but can’t even fill in a form about themselves in our national language. The Government should demand a decent level of English from all migrants – that would save money on translations and help migrants to integrate.”
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: “We must insist that people who come to live and work in our country learn the language.”
