Krio interpreting and translation

Krio interpreting: never assume English is enough

A Krio speaker may seem to follow English, and an English speaker may think they follow Krio; both assumptions lead to errors that are easy to miss in a consultation room or an interview suite. Our Krio interpreters work in person at GP surgeries, hospitals, public health clinics, police stations, magistrates' and Crown Courts, schools and family centres. For routine appointments, phone interpreting is available whenever you need it, including nights and weekends, and video sessions run on the SILA Linguists® app or on the system you already use.

Krio is also the second language of many speakers of Mende, Temne, Limba and other Sierra Leonean languages. A Krio interpreter can often help them, but for a detailed asylum or police interview a first-language interpreter may be the better choice, so tell us the person's background. Women and men can each request an interpreter of their own gender.

Krio translation and Sierra Leonean documents

Birth certificates, school records and court papers from Sierra Leone are issued in English, so the translation work we do in Krio is mostly for public health campaigns, safeguarding leaflets, school letters and community information, and for evidence such as text messages and voice notes.

Krio has a standard Latin-based spelling, used in literacy materials, but many readers write Krio in English-style spelling. We agree which approach suits your audience before we start. Where a Krio item must go before a court or the Home Office, we supply a certified English translation with a signed declaration of accuracy, the form UK authorities accept.

Transcribing Krio evidence

Recorded police interviews, intercepted calls, body-worn camera footage and WhatsApp audio in Krio are transcribed verbatim with time codes and rendered into English, with any passages in English or another Sierra Leonean language labelled. For asylum claims where nationality is disputed between Sierra Leone, Liberia and neighbouring countries, we can arrange LADO, the specialist analysis of speech used to establish origin.

Where we can help in Krio

Our vetted, trained and qualified Krio linguists can support NHS and public health services, immigration and asylum advisers, police, the courts and prosecutors, schools and children's services. Your request goes to one coordinator at SILA Linguists®, and every interpreter and transcriber is vetted and works under signed non-disclosure agreements and UK GDPR.