ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of interpretation for Arab refugees in South Korea based on the statistical data reported by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), analyze the results of a survey conducted on professional Arabic refugee interpreters, and evaluate the quality of their interpreting, thereby suggesting measures for the improvement of interpreting services in refugee settings. In South Korea, interpreting services for Arab refugees were launched after the Refugee Act was enacted in 2013. Subsequently, demand for such services soared due to the sudden rise in the number of Arab applicants for refugee status, including 648 applicants from Syria in 2014 and more than 550 from Yemen in 2018. At that time, interpreters for Arab refugee applicants were appointed without a proper certification process, which, as many pointed out, resulted in poor interpreting quality. In order to address this issue, MoJ has implemented the Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification System since 2021. According to MoJ, there were only eleven professional refugee interpreters for Arab refugees as of November 2022. This paper offers suggestions for the improvement of interpreting services for Arab refugee applicants: first, Arabic dialects education for Korean interpreters and Korean education for Arab interpreters, in combination with cooperation between the two groups; second, education on the circumstances of Arab countries and Arab-related background knowledge; third, education on Arab and Islamic cultures, particularly differences with Korean culture; and fourth, training programs for interviewers of refugee applicants to enhance their understanding of Arab countries and cultures, while also promoting the social recognition of the difficulties such interviewers face and offering them some benefits in performance evaluation.
