Last month, we told you that approximately 80 Haitians had arrived at the PGIA with hundred dollar bills in their passports, presumably as some sort of bribe. The Immigration Minister has previously commented that he believes there is an international network that is smuggling Haitians. Today, we got the PM's views on the situation.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"What we did we had a long discussion, the Minister of Immigration, maybe a year ago, he came to Cabinet and said we have to institute the Treaty of Chaguaramos in which includes the removal of VISA restrictions and the Haitians still had VISA restrictions, we removed it, but now that we've done that, we've seen that there is a serious problem of human trafficking, a lot of Haitians are coming to Belize then we don't know where they get to, it is, we all know that they're going on to the United States, unfortunately the US holds us responsible when we don't act so the recommendation is probably we need to remove that VISA waiver, that they will have to start to apply for a VISA and they will have to show where they are going to stay and that they have the monies, the funds to be able to stay and to get back."
