But once upon another government - back in 2014, the U.S. made another controversial humanitarian request, one that was firmly rebuffed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
Elrington says he couldn't side with his PM on that one.
Wilfred Elrington, Former Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"Given his affiliation, a former Al Qaeda terrorist has the U.S. ever made this type of request before, to your knowledge, have they asked Belize to resettle former terrorists?"
"I am certain that they did not ask while I was a foreign minister or if they asked it did not come to my knowledge. During the time I was foreign Minister Prime Minister Dean Barrow was very much on top of things and he very likely would have informed us as Cabinet if such a request had been made of him an he never did."
Cherisse Halsall:
"There was one request made of the former Prime Minister though, when he was requested to allow a patient suffering with ebola to land in Belize and then to be Medivaced out of here, to that request he said no."
Wilfred Elrington, Former Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"Actually the Prime Minister and I usually held the same view, on most things, on most things but I am sure I was not one of the members in Cabinet who. Agreed with him with respect to that request, I thought that from a humanitarian point of view, we ought to have allowed them to bring the passenger to Belize. I take the view that we are so sophisticated now, and we have so much knowledge now that most of these occurrences can be properly managed so that they don't have a negative effect on our country. The United States understands that if it causes any harm to Belize it's going to affect the as well, so I don't think the United States will want to do anything to us that would in fact cause us to be weaker, more fragile and therefore more open to penetration which is going to affect them ultimately. So, I can remember very distinctly that occasion I did not agree with that decision but I can candidly say that on most occasions the prime Minister's view and mine were aligned."
