The Harsh Road of Asylum Seeking 難民申請艱辛路
Yesterday I accompanied a fellow Falun Gong practitioner to her refugee application interview, and acted as her interpreter(verbal translator). And this is what I wrote after the 4 hour long interview:
昨日陪一名法輪功學員去移民局參加難民申請面試，並擔任她的口譯員。四小時的面試結束後，頭暈腦脹的我在臉書上寫下以下文字：
I need some entertainment and relaxation now...
我現在急需放鬆一下精神……
To interpret between English and Chinese back and forth continuously for 4 hours was so exhausting, especially when most of the conversation was about the very bad persecution my fellow Falun Gong practitioner had suffered...It felt like that I had to live through all the process together with her one more time...
四小時的連續中翻英、英翻中的工作太艱苦了，腦力一直高度緊張，幾乎沒有半分鐘可以休息的時間，因爲我要麼是在翻譯，要麼是在全神貫注地聽移民官和被「審問」的同修講話，並力圖一字不差地記住她們講了什麼，以免漏翻錯翻。而對話內容大部分是很殘酷的迫害經歷，同修哭，我也想哭，但情緒上還必須控制……同時還要不斷的、下意識地替同修擔心，擔心她答不好，擔心她不理解移民官的問題，然後又知道自己只能乾著急，因爲按規定，我只能翻譯她的話，也不能替她講或增添任何內容……真是一場艱苦的心理和精神鏖戰⋯⋯
Seeking refugee isn't fun at all, truth be told. If there weren't for this cruel persecution of Falun Gong, the elderly lady I helped today would be enjoining her comfortable retirement in China now, instead of being questioned so sharply and sometimes harshly for 4 hours...
同時不免想感慨：這難民申請真不是人該幹的事……如果沒有中共對法輪功的殘酷迫害，我今天幫的這位老太太，明明可以在家安享晚年的……而現在，她卻不得不逃到人生地不熟的異國他鄉，被一個比自己女兒還年輕的後輩小女像審什麼似的「審問」……當然移民官的工作就是「懷疑」、「審問」，以確定這人是不是真的是難民。她對自己的工作負責，問的問題必須，也必然會尖銳甚至很難整……對這點，我沒有什麼可抱怨的。只是，我在保持了翻譯上的「專業」、「客觀」、「公正」和「中立」的同時，情感上，卻不由得因同情受難者而倍受折磨……
Anyway, my friend said she was very grateful that I had been there. My translation was excellent and right to the point; my mere presence and my way of handling everything gave her huge, huge mental support. Glad to know this...Glad that she didn't feel my distress...
好在我很好的隱藏了自己的情感，沒有讓同修看出來。相反，她覺得我很平靜，處理事情很妥當，翻譯很到位、很精準，並說我給了她很大的精神安慰……
網友We-e Liao爲此賦詩曰：
