And another issue which came up on the show - has also triggered an angry release from the government.
Union President Flower states that a team of Immigration Officials was sent to Bolivia and to Peru. They were allegedly there to offer services to applicants from those countries to regularize their Belizean Immigration Status. He also questioned why Cabinet said nothing about it.
He imputed improper motives about the outcome of those missions, and this evening, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, and Immigration sent out a strongly-worded press release in rebuttal.
Their press release says, quote, " The ministry hereby explicitly states that the immigration services provided to Belizeans and foreigners are not related to the narcotics trade. Furthermore, the ministry categorically denies that the services provided to Belizeans living in Bolivia and Peru were tied to the narcotics trade.
In reference to providing secured travel documents to Belizeans, locally and globally as per the mission of the Department of Nationality and Passport, the ministry carried out two scheduled Special Assignments for the calendar year 2021 to provide passport application services to Belizeans abroad as follows:
- Bolivia - Approximately 996 applications
- Peru - Approximately 142 applications
From a foreign relations perspective, the ministry liaised with Belize's Foreign Affairs office and the Foreign Affairs offices of the respective countries. From a financial perspective, the ministry liaised with the offices of the Financial Secretary and the Accountant General for protocols to collect payments, issue receipts, and final consolidation.
These initiatives were not Belize Cabinet's decisions. Consequently, they were not in the Cabinet Briefs. These were ministry-level initiatives requiring public officers to carry out the respective functions to Belizeans in the Belize diaspora.
These Special Assignments involve traveling to countries where Belizeans currently reside and have no access to Belizean embassies to collect passport renewal applications.
Furthermore, for the calendar year 2022, the ministry is planning to carry out similar Special Assignments in various locations in the United States of America as is being requested by Belize Foreign Missions in the U.S. These are locations of high concentrations of Belizeans that do not have Belizean embassies to process renewals of passports." End Quote.
Channel 7 has never been made aware of those special assignments but apologies unreservedly for any inference that the work of the public officers was anything unseemly, suspicious or nefarious - we know that was not the case.
