And all that was explained in a letter that the UN agencies sent to Minister Eamon Courtenay on the 29th of November it pleaded with the Minister and the government to allow for an amnesty extension due to all the challenges the process had encountered thus far.
But it seems that the extension was already under heavy consideration. This afternoon IOM Office Head Diana Locke told us that Cabinet's decision came on the very same day that the letter was sent.
Diane Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"The letter that we are talking about, we wrote him and share with him the challenges that we had in getting the beneficiaries prepared, transportation, economic cost, just the fare and other little things that we came across challenges with birth certificates. We shared those things with him and we ask for their consideration of the extension. These conversations have been ongoing from ever since, but we just thought it would have been good to document it since we did not have anything formal. We didn't have a sit down and so we were hopeful and I think based on all the conversations that we've had with the government they have been very receptive, so I figured it would happen, but we can't assume things until it becomes official and the cabinet makes it decision. So we just documented those facts to the minister and basically when we sent the letter to him, the response was immediate that the cabinet had approved the letter, the extension of the amnesty and so we were very happy about that."
