The Head of the Belize office of the International Organization on Migration also discussed their involvement. According to Diana Locke, their office has seen and advised over 4 thousand potential applicants, some of whom couldn't afford the application fees for the amnesty.
Here are those comments:
Diana Locke - Head of National Office, IOM Belize
"Basically, for us, we are probably around the 4,200 consultation mark. We've engaged with about that amount of persons, maybe a little bit more. That may translate - some people came back twice, and so it may be a little lower number in terms of the individual. But the need that we're seeing out there is, as you mentioned, in terms of families, there are many families out there that qualify. They have been selective in whom they're going to bring into the amnesty because of the finances. And so, we have had a chance to speak to them and say, no, you can't be selective. You have to put everyone in. It's generally the finances just to complete the application process. And that's that could range, if you find a reasonable service provider, anywhere between 75 to $100. Or in some places, people are charging service charges which are really exorbitant. So I am happy that with the help of UNICEF and UNHCR, we can go out into the field. We can offer this service free of cost. In [some] cases, we actually pay for some of the services in communities where there's really a need. This weekend and last weekend in Toledo, we provided - we took birth certificates, police records, and medical. We paid for the medical. We processed police records and translations. And so, we are paying for some of those for people who can't afford it or who have very large families. We're covering some of those costs, but that's the need that we see right now. People are not coming out. If you look at the numbers released by the government, those numbers are relatively low. We know that they're communities that we can't get to, particularly in the south."
