The right to interpretation service in Sweden is currently regulated under the Code of Judicial Procedure, the Administrative Procedures Act, and the State Officials Act.Interpreter service in courts is a right according to the Code of Judicial Procedure. The State Officials Act regulates administrative authorities and states that a public authority should use an interpreter ‘when needed’. This formulation does not imply a right as in the Code of Judicial Procedure as “when needed” gives the right to decide whether an interpreter is called in or not, to the public service provider.

In this paper our starting point is the fieldwork done within a research project called Behind closed doors – The significance of community interpreting for guaranteeing legal security and for integration; with special focus on the reception of unaccompanied children and the processing of their asylum cases. As the title of this project suggests it is the act of community interpreting that is our main research object but with the special purpose to study community interpreting within the field of reception and processing of asylum cases of separated children.

The interpreter is involved in many different areas and meetings - with the Migration Board, the health system, at school, in dialogue with social workers, the legal guardian etc. We will describe and analyze the everyday handlings, routines and norms within the reception of separated children and the processing of their asylum cases through the eye of the interpreter. We will also problematize the impact of community interpreting from the perspective of separated children, as individuals depending on interpretation to be able to communicate and to obtain rights (legal and human, specified in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).