ICC Note: In a letter by Reverend Gottfried Martens, he explains how Christian asylum seekers from the Middle East are being cheated by their translators when facing German Ministry of Immigration. Some translators are intentionally destroying the chances at asylum whereas others are just unfamiliar with Christian language to be able to properly translate these cases. Christian converts are often persecuted and rejected by their Muslim counterparts and families, and now we are seeing other ways in which they suffer for their decision to follow Christ.

01/28/2017 Iran (Mohabat News): In a letter to supporters of his ministry, Rev Gottfried Martens alleged: “We have also experienced how the almost exclusively Muslim translators deliberately stick the knife in our congregational members by falsely translating what they say.”

The pastor claimed that because the translators were often unfamiliar with Christian language, they were unable to properly translate a full statement from the asylum seekers.

Rev Martens wrote: “Many hearings are more like kangaroo courts in which our congregational members and candidates for baptism have absolutely no chance of presenting what is important to them. And then they must repeatedly undergo being mocked and laughed at when they relate how it is important to them that Jesus Christ died for their sins on the Cross.

“One of the hearers is known to write down in the report, when such remarks are made: “what the applicant says here makes absolutely no sense’.”

Rev Martens, pastor of the Lutheran Dreieinigkeits Gemeinde, says he has baptised over 1000 former Muslims, mostly from Iran and Afghanistan.

He said that Christian converts from Islam often face rejection by their communities and even death threats.

Premier contacted Germany’s Ministry for Immigration and Refugees (BAMF) over the pastor’s concerns.

Spokesperson Kira Gehrmann told Premier: “The quality of translation is really important to the Federal Office. The Federal Office pursues all indications on quality of translators which reaches it. If the allegations should harden after further verification, the Federal Office refrains from using the translator in question again for the asylum procedure.”

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