US immigration using Google translate to assess refugees: Report

Google Translate Logo (Image_ Wikimedia Commons)

A global interconnector, the Google translate app, has helped many netizens bridge the communication and language barriers online.

However, as anyone with a bit of experience with the product knows, it works okay at best and disastrously at worst. The app cannot yet translate local idioms, casual lingo, slang or wordplay adequately, let alone deliver nuances with any tone or depth.

It is, thus, shocking for many that that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is using the product as bona fide translator to assess refugees applications to the country, non-profit pressroom ProPublica.org reported.

An internal manual directed officials to use online language translations applications provided by Google, Bing, etc., to sift through non-English social media posts. It also provides detailed steps on using Google Translate, the publication added.

The manual was first sourced by the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

What makes the decision more questionable is that Google itself cautioned against using the app for complex tasks saying: “the service is not intended to replace human translators.”

Language experts also agree that their spotty performance record made translation apps unreliable. Terming it “naive”, Douglas Hofstadter, a professor of cognitive science and comparative literature at the Indiana University at Bloomington told ProPublica.org he found the move “deeply disheartening, stupid and short-sighted”.

USCIS Spokesperson Jessica Collins, however, defended the decision as a “common-sense measure”. The department also clarified that denials for refugee settlement were not based solely on social media content.

However, the practical usage of the app is enough to measure its accuracy. Facebook, for example, was left red-faced when a Palestinian man’s “good morning” post translated as “attack them” in Hebrew and “hurt them” in English.

And, a review report by the USCIS itself deemed the method “not sufficient”, the report noted.

Google and Yahoo owner Verizon did not respond to ProPublica’s questions while Microsoft replied with a “nothing to share” comment.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has intensified immigration scrutiny to support “extreme vetting” and added emphasis on the requirement of social media information of applicants.

The US State Department updated its social media request in May. However, in September, the Department of Homeland Security said it would begin requesting social media information of those seeking US citizenship or permanent residence, refugees and asylees.