Belize's Amnesty program has been officially extended for another three months until February of 2023. So far, over 9,300 individuals, including asylum-seekers have applied for amnesty.
That decision from Cabinet was quite a welcome one for personnel at UNICEF and International Organization for Migration who have been working to make sure that every migrant man, woman, or child who applies and qualifies to become a Belizean citizen has the chance to do so.
And that's a task that's taken massive effort across much of Belize's rural landscape. And in the wake of the government's decision, a release from the UN agencies says that their efforts have including quote: "assisting migrants, in covering the costs for translations of foreign documents, photographs, medical services, and police records needed for their Amnesty applications." end quote. They also expect to, quote: " Follow up by covering the cost of permanent residency for the most vulnerable who are granted that pathway by the Government of Belize." It's a tall order and one that certainly needed the additional time but we heard that first hand this afternoon when we stopped by the IOM's Belize City offices and spoke with Head of operations, Diana Locke.
Diane Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"Well the government made that decision to extend the program. We certainly welcomed it, because we had actually written to the minister on the 29th - that was the same day that apparently cabinet made the decision. So we had an inclination that it might have been extended, because of the low numbers, but we weren't sure and so we were very happy hence the release that the UN agency put out to say that we welcome the decision of the government to extend the amnesty."
Reporter
"When you say low numbers, why do you feel that is?"
Diane Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"Its low because the government was projecting between 40-60 thousand. From our part we were going of about 25,000 and we were hoping that we could get somewhere in the region of a little more than what actually happened on 1999. So that number I think around that time was about 10,000-11,000. We are hoping that we could exceed that number this time, because we do believe that there are people out there that are not coming in for various reasons. We need to move very quickly on that, because once you get the document and you have the birth certificate then you need to get the passport to have a photo ID. These things impact a police record and so you need a photo ID whether expired or currently valid in order to get a police record. For us those key things are things we want to jump on very quickly in the month of December to start the ball rolling with those getting the embassy to work with us, verify, so that people can get back that document and we can go through the process of getting the police record for them."
Reporter
"Now that you have this extension, how do you go about ramping up efforts to try and reach more people?"
Diane Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"We have already identified the locations that the UN team will go back to. So I think we have a total of 8 weekends, because the month of December hardly anything happens and our staff needs a break, they've been working 7 days a week for a long time. And so basically, we are not doing anything in the field in December, we're still giving advice and we're still processing a lot of numbers here and so what we will be doing is looking at the village reports, because we've gone in to detail of having numbers for each of the villages that we visited, how many people we've seen. We would like to sit with the government partner, not necessarily exchanging any information, but sit there and compare who we have prepared to who have submitted. So you could do a name calling, if you do like the election process and you could call a name, because there are limited villages we are looking at. Its not countrywide. I think we are looking at Belmopan, we are looking at San Ignacio, we are looking at Belize District meaning Ladyville and probably a bit of Belize City, Toledo, South Stann Creek and we are also looking at perhaps Caye Caulker and San Pedro, but they would have to come together in one location. More than likely in San Pedro."
"That's what we are targeting right now, we're doing some calls talking to people on the ground out there, but these are the ones that we've identified in terms of the 6 weekends that we're going to be working in the next year. Out of the 8, these 6 are the places that we want to target and we are going to be looking for those people who have been prepared by IOM, but whose name does not appear in the list that has made an application already. So those are the people that we have seen that might not have gone in to submit an application. If we get 100% of them that has gone in, we'll look for more. But if they haven't, there are challenges that they are having, maybe they are still waiting for a passport, or a birth certificate - those are the people that we are going to reach out to ensure that those people get their application here."
