Belize City, Wed. Dec. 1, 2021– Last Wednesday, Public Service Union (PSU) president, Mr. Dean Flowers, during an appearance on Channel 7’s Uncut show hosted by Jules Vasquez, raised public suspicions when he reported that a team of Immigration Department employees had recently been sent to Bolivia and Peru “to issue Belizean passports”. Mr. Flowers then said that he felt compelled to “tie it to what is happening on the narco front.” He also questioned the reason that the trips were not presented to Cabinet and made publicly known.
These accusations triggered a swift response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Immigration via press release. In that release, which was issued on Friday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the operation which Flowers had depicted as shady or questionable was an effort to provide immigration services to Belizeans living overseas in regions where they do not have immediate access to a Belizean Embassy, where they would otherwise be able to collect passport renewal application forms.
The most recent of such operations was carried out in Bolivia and Peru.
“In reference to providing secured travel documents to Belizeans, locally and globally as per the mission of the Department of Nationality and Passport, the ministry carried out two scheduled Special Assignments for the calendar year 2021 to provide passport application services to Belizeans abroad as follows: Bolivia – Approximately 996 applications from 10/02/2021 to 2/03/2021, Peru — Approximately 142 applications from 12/11/2021 to 23/11/2021,” the Ministry’s release explained.
The release further indicated that Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs liaised with the foreign affairs offices of both countries in order to provide these services to the Belizeans living in those territories and that it had also liaised with the Financial Secretary and the Accountant General offices in Belize to “collect payment, issue receipts and final consolidation” for the services rendered.
As for the reason that the operation was not discussed in Cabinet, the Foreign Affairs Ministry explained that “these initiatives were not Belizean Cabinet decisions. Consequently, they were not in the Cabinet briefs. These were ministry-level initiatives requiring public officers to carry out the respective functions to Belizeans in the Belize Diaspora”.
The Ministry also made clear that these initiatives were carried out previously, such as in 2012, when roughly 1,100 applications were delivered to Bolivia between the 10th of February and the 2nd of March, and 25 were delivered in Mexico between the 23rd and the 26th of October. Likewise, in 2016 about 50 applications were transported to Dubai. According to the release, the Ministry also plans to carry out similar Special Assignments in various United States territories in 2022 as requested by Belize Foreign Missions in the US.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry went on to categorize Mr. Flowers’ statements as libelous and said that the issue will be addressed legally.