Translators did not disappear. Their rates did.

What we found

Reporting for this report began with a single question and a records request that took four months to answer. The documents that came back described a process nobody involved was willing to explain on the record — so we went to the people it affected instead.

What follows is drawn from eighteen interviews, a review of contracts obtained under freedom of information law, and two weeks of reporting on the ground. Where we could not confirm a claim independently, we have said so.

The pattern

The same arrangement appears in three other places we checked. Each time, the terms were slightly different and the outcome was roughly the same: a decision made quickly, at a scale nobody had planned for, in a jurisdiction where the rules had not yet been written.

"Nobody asked us. We found out the way everyone else found out."

That sentence, or a close version of it, came up in nearly every conversation.

What happens next

Two of the authorities we contacted have opened reviews. A third declined to comment. We will continue reporting this story, and we publish corrections in the open — if you know something about it, the newsroom's contact details are at the bottom of this page.