And in regards to the Ministry of Labor, the CEO expressed that Belize is facing a growing labor crisis that is affecting almost every industry. From agriculture to construction, employers are struggling to find both manual and skilled workers. While speaking to the media she expressed why employers are having a hard time retaining manual laborers:
Tanya Santos - CEO - Ministry of Immigration
"That is a reality. And it's across the country in almost every sector. And I know that because we get many, many, many requests from the agriculture industry, from construction, from the service industry, in tourism, for workers. And many times it's manual labor. There's a huge shortage of manual labor in the country. And there's also, in certain sectors, shortage of skilled labor as well, skilled employees. And so we're noticing we're having to import a lot of that. And so that is what has the high demand for visas, for work permits in Belize."
Reporter
"Based on your observation, what would you think would be a contributing factor to this?"
Tanya Santos - CEO - Ministry of Immigration
"You know, there were a lot of Belizeans who left in the last few years. I was not aware, but we had a meeting last week, and one of the Mennonite community leaders was saying that they have been affected by emigration of workers in the communities surrounding them, immigration to the United States. So they have had to find ways of getting people to fill those gaps. But also, especially when it comes to skilled labor, we need to find a way to match the demands with the education that we're offering. And that's why we have here today also present the Ministry of Education. They're a key partner, and they have been involved and working with us. But also, Belize is a small country. Our population is very small. You know, just within government, you go to different meetings, it's the same people you're seeing because we don't have the human resources. So it's a combination of many factors."
