Government's Amnesty program has arrived at it's final stage, where applicants can now pick up their permanent residency cards which now allows them to qualify for other benefits like social security.
With over 13,560 applicants, 40 people came out to pick up their cards on Saturday, with hundreds more to be printed and distributed over the next few weeks. Here's what we gathered from the IOM event - where the Prime Minister addressed them in Spanish.
Diana Locke, Head of Office at IOM Belize
"Today we had the ceremony for the handing over of the amnesty permanent residence cards. This is the end process for those recipients today who applied in the amnesty. We partnered with the government of Belize back in 2022 and 2023 to execute on the ground applicants and preparing applicants for the amnesty application process and so today the approvals are beginning to come out. The cards have been printed and persons have received their permanent residence cards for Belize which allows them to live, work and function in Belize as any other permanent resident. Five years from today they are eligible to apply for nationality through this process but it's very important for us today was the fact that we did this in the middle of what we call our identity and integration hub so that these persons who picked up their card today can actually come to the social security desk here that we have today in the hub and they can actually make an application for their social security card. So it's kind of like a one stop shop today. This is our intention across the country we are going to be having about 8-10 hubs like this across the country where we are taking all of the identity services that the government has and bringing them in one location bringing one social security along with it and maybe others. We have labor we have a private sector entity we might be bringing in more private sector entities as we go along and we see how it's functioning we might improve on it's because it's proven to be very effective. People who live in rural communities find it very difficult to come on a regular basis into a government office during the day and then you go from one office to the other and then you're moving around. Today you can do everything in one location."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"But ladies and gentlemen it is a great pleasure to be here with you all to give you your cards of residency in Belize. Over the years Belize has changed a lot because there are a lot of persons from all over Central America that have come to Belize and they have made their homes here. I want to welcome you all on behalf of the government of Belize and all Belizeans. For us this is very important that we can give you your residency and eventually your nationalities because we want you to become a part of our society. We want you to become part of Belize and its development. I always tell people who visit Belize that they will not be able to distinguish between a boy from Salvador or Honduras and a boy from Belize because in our homes we speak Spanish and in school we learn to speak English and on the street we speak Creole with our fronds."
Over 75 cards are available for pickup.
