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Tonight the Immigration Department is under scrutiny - almost two months after a Sierra Leone man alleged that an immigration officer took a thousand dollars from him, supposedly on the promise that she could get him safe passage out of the country.
That didn't work out and James Efrimea is now at the Hattieville prison awaiting deportation, but he has still not gotten back his thousand dollars.
In a video - allegedly captured by another immigration officer - Efrimea alleges a camel immigration officer extorted him for $1,000 dollars in exchange for assistance to leave Belize. He also claims that the officer held his passport. We know he has also made a complaint to the police.
The Immigration officer in question has come under vicious attack in a video being circulated on WhatsApp which purports to show her using cocaine. Tonight her attorney has issued a statement. It says "Over the past days, our client Ms Sheree Flores has been the subject, mainly through the media, of an unfolding apparent attack to her good name and reputation as a Woman Immigration Officer and Public Servant by persons within her own workplace who with ill motive and malice have disseminated a video which is not recent and fails to expose the true circumstances of the event on the date of the video. Our client categorically denies any of the allegations made by these persons and the media that she is seen using an immigration card to cut a line of cocaine and any repeat of publication of any extortion which has been associated with the recent releases.
While our client refuses to engage in any form of confrontation with the Immigration Department, by this means she demands that a proper investigation be conducted by the Minister and the Director of Immigration on the individuals that have attempted to tarnish her reputation….she has made complains of ill actions by these persons which commenced when she aided the Department in uncovering dishonest acts among officers of the Department at the Phillip Goldson International Airport.
This publication is intended to assure her colleagues and the general public of her professionalism, respect, and above all integrity in serving and working as a member of the Immigration Department.
Our client has taken the necessary measures to vindicate her reputation and good name including filing police reports against these individuals and is in the process of commencing court actions against those who continue to defame her name and act unlawfully.
Any and all allegations of wrongdoings will be strongly defended with sufficient documentary proof."
That's the end of what may be an unprecedented statement form an immigration officer.
We did reach out to CEO of the Ministry of Immigration Gilroy Middleton for comment - but up to news time he had not responded.
