Last night we took you to the Immigration department in Belmopan where C.E.O. Gilroy Middleton outlined the reasons for the 400% price hike on Belizean passports.
According to the Ministry, this new price is more in line with the regional and global standards for similar documents but that wasn't the only reason given.
C.E.O. Middleton also told us that a modern passport has an intrinsic higher cost.
Gilroy Middleton, Chief Executive Officer, Immigration
"This new world-class passport that we have here in terms of the new E-passport is a world-class document one, it is an E-passport two, and this document is not a reflection of inflation, it's a reflection of the old passport has been some 17 years old. So in effect, we were paying a fee for 17 years old. Minister Courtenay noted when the new document was introduced at the launching o f the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs and also in the senate in October of last year that a decision was made by the Cabinet to hold off on the actual fee. Being a former trade economist it's simple, everyone that has purchased the old passport at the old 17-year-old fee got a social discount and that was the logic behind Cabinet not. Well, Cabinet put off the new fee but what has happened six months has passed since then and the Ministry is of the position that it is time to implement this fee, simple economics, the old fee was 30 dollars per child the new fee that we proposed in October 2022 was $150 per child, the old fee $50 per adult, the new fee $200.00 per adult."
"The $150 and $200 are break-even costs, the government is not in this to make a profit, what we are looking at is a world-class document, a secure document and unlike one country in our region namely Grenada, Barbados, Uruguay, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina, Belize has opted to join the IKO-PKD which is further security enhancement in which countries that join this group, we share our passport information so when someone from Canada or the U.S. to Belize immediately our system can go back and say this is an authentic passport from a country that is a part of this group in terms of the international civil aviation authority and the same thing now when a Belizean goes to these countries that are part of these group, they can say immediately, this was issued by the nationality and passport department in Belize and this is authentic. No questions asked. we went further to ensure that we have that security detail. So in my opinion this is not a reflection of inflation. This is a reflection of the nationality and passport department, the Ministry of Immigration moving into the future, moving into technology."
