It is standard procedure for the Government of Belize to ship people back to their countries of origin once they arrive in Belize seeking some kind of refugee status. At the Kolbe-managed prison, there are a number of persons who are awaiting repatriation to their countries of origin. Although Belize has a refugee law and is a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, the rights of persons seeking refugee status in Belize are at times overlooked.
But today in the Supreme Court, Belize’s Refugee Law was upheld, when Justice Michelle Arana ruled in favor of human rights activist Antoinette Moore in a judicial review that she filed on behalf of two Cubans and a citizen of Somalia, who are seeking refugee status in Belize.
The two Cubans filed an application for a judicial review, challenging the Government of Belize’s policy in relation to their refugee interest. The Cubans, Pedro Garcia Carrera and Karelis de Los Angeles Sosa Sanchez, and the Somalian, Nur Abdi Shire, took the Attorney General, the Minister of National Security, and the Director of Immigration to court, asking the court to affirm their rights to seek refugee status in Belize.
In her judgment that was issued in the applicants’ favor, Justice Arana ruled that the petitioners have a right to a refugee hearing. But most importantly, while they are awaiting such a hearing, they will do so in protective custody outside the walls of the prison. The protective custody, which will give the applicants their freedom, will be at a place in Belmopan.
Attorney Moore told Amandala that they brought the judicial review action this morning, “because the Government of Belize is legally obligated to have a refugee hearing, when someone enters this country and claims refugee status. The government is obligated because we have a Refugee Act that was put in place in 1991. The government is also obligated because we are a party to the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.
“Both require the Government of Belize to give hearings to individuals who claim refugee status. This has not happened in the case of the Somali gentleman and the two Cubans, and several others who had come before them.”
Moore said that she came to represent the three applicants because she is a part of the Human Rights Commission of Belize, and through the Human Rights Commission she received copies of their letters seeking a hearing on their refugee claims.
Not only will the three applicants be released from detention, Moore said, but the female applicant has a husband and son and they, too, will be released, because under the Refugee Act, the family of the person claiming status is also considered.
The court hearing is over, Moore said, because the government conceded that they were wrong and that these people have a right to a hearing. The parties have agreed and Justice Arana will sign the order for their release.
Moore was assisted in the hearing by Owen Robinson, a Scottish human rights lawyer.
The Cubans are part of a group that arrived in Belize on a boat in February. There were sixteen Cubans on the boat that landed in southern Belize. Due to the harsh elements that they were subjected to during the journey, two of them perished.
The remaining fourteen were taken to prison in Hattieville, where they are awaiting deportation back to Cuba.