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Audit report questions nationality certificate signed by Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse

HeadlineAudit report questions nationality certificate signed by Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Sept. 1, 2016–The brother-in-law of Kim Simplis-Barrow, wife of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, has been approved for a Belizean passport, which was highlighted in the Special Audit of the Immigration Department, because the auditors contend that he did not qualify for Belizean nationality.

Both Prime Minister Barrow and his Immigration Minster, Senator Godwin Hulse, who signed the passport, insist, however, that Peter William Dahlstrom, a Swedish national, who resides in London, UK, qualified to receive such a passport due to his marriage to a Belizean.

Dahlstrom applied for the passport on April 5, 2012 and gave his address as 61 Southern Foreshore. The necessary police report was waived, and his application was marked “urgent ok,” the auditors found.

Dahlstrom was recommended by Erle Grinage of 7 Poinsettia Lane, who stated that he has known the applicant for two years.

“Also attached was a copy of nationality certificate number 28265/12 dated October 2012 signed by Minister Godwin Hulse. However, Section 3 of the Passport application form which requires citizens by registration to fill in, was not adhered to,” said the report.

The report noted that “police report waive” “was a deliberate attempt to make it appear as though the applicant had a previous passport and was only renewing it on the 5th April, 2012.”

“Further searches in the BPIS using the surname ‘Dahlstrom’ revealed that one application was created on 5th April, 2012, for Peter William Dahlstrom. The Nationality Certificate number entered on the BPIS application was 1111111111, dated April 5, 2012 and his biometric information was also captured. There was no such Nationality Certificate number in the Register of Citizens Registration,” the report pointed out.

The report also said that another application for Peter William “brought up another passport application in the name of Peter William Dahlstrom with the ‘o’ in Dahlstrom as ‘ö.’”

“Sharon Flowers approved passport P0220900 to Peter Dahlstrom without performing a biometric check,” the report further stated.

The report also provided the following details: “The Passport Issue List showed that his wife, Sherrett Normandeen Dahlstrom, had 2 passports, P0194116 and P094117, printed in her name on the same date of the fraudulent application (5th April, 2012) for Peter William Dahlstrom.

“However, we noticed that P0194116 was erroneously printed as Dahlstrorom and was cancelled, while P1094117 was seen on the BPIS as issued to Sherrett Normandeen Dahlstrom. No application form was seen by Audit for this applicant.”

The Report ends by stating, “More findings on applicant Peter William Dahlstrom will be reported in the Nationality report.”

In his comments on the passport issued to his wife’s brother-in-law, Prime Minister Barrow insisted that he was entitled to the Belize passport. The Prime Minister did not, however, specifically address the inconsistencies that the audit found.

Minister Hulse said at today’s Prime Minister’s press conference that a person is entitled to Belizean nationality by law after one year of marriage to a Belizean.

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