And last week, you heard the Briceno government's reasoning for the Amnesty Program, set to start later this year. And with the amendment to the Belize Nationality Act tabled in the House, they are one step closer.
Today, Locke explained that IOM has been going around the country to assist those who want to apply with their documentation. She added that while they have only gotten to less than 3,000, they are hoping to reach over 30,000 people before the start of the program.
Diana Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"Government announce that it officially open its portal in August, so we are preparing for that. We have already completed 10 mobile hubs across the country. We are now going this weekend to the final district that we have not reach and that's Dangriga. We've done Toledo two weeks ago and we're going to go back again to Cayo, because we didn't feel that we saw enough people there and so we will go back and that will be the end of those. We are targeting some 3500 people at the end of this process, we've already seen 2,700 up to the end of Toledo and so we will do that. We are looking at our resources to see if when the portal opens, we would have sufficient resources and maybe we will have new partners that will join us with funding that we can back out in the community again to help the people that we prepare the applications already. We will help them to actually do the registration online. Thats what we would like to do as the next phase in all of this to support the amnesty."
"From other sources, some unfortunately they have to pay for. We've seen some people who've come back to us with applications which were perhaps they paid for, but it was wrong application form that was use and so what we do is we provide that service for free. I don't think the media has seen one of our hubs, but what we literally do is take the entire process that you would have to do in completing the forms and set it up in one location, so you can do your medical test, you can get your documents sign, you can get your photographs taken, translations done - everything is in one location that you come, you access that at a reduce cost and then we make sure at the very end that all of the documents are intact and that people are ready to go to the next step of making the application. The only thing we cant do at those hubs is to get your police record, but we help you fill out the forms."
So far, based on the migrants who have received help from IOM, most of them are women who qualify because of having Belizean children.
