Last week, we told you about a situation of irregularities at the Immigration Department, where several Chinese nationals arrived at the Phillip Goldson airport with permanent residency cards despite having never stepped foot in Belize before. They were shipped out on Friday - but the investigation into where the documents came from continues.
Now, fraud in the Immigration Department is a chronic PUDP problem -and it is rearing its head publicly for the first time in the Briceno administration.
And today, the Prime Minister wanted no part of it - he left it in the hands of his Immigration Minister, Eamon Courtenay:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I have just been informed but the minister on Friday about it, they're doing an investigation and if there's one thing you have to give Minister Courtenay credit that he is strict and he would not tolerate this kind of action so he said as soon as this came to his attention, he immediately started to take action but I can't comment more because it's an ongoing investigation."
Reporter:
"But is this something recent under this administration or is it something that carries over?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"From what I'm told it's something that has been done for some time, it's not something- well, that has continue. But I don't want to comment because I don't know the dates and all of that so I want to leave it as that."
