Two weeks ago, Cabinet announced that it would impose a visa requirement for Haitians wishing to visit Belize, while Jamaican nationals would have to provide evidence of fully paid non-refundable hotel reservations prior to boarding flights to Belize.
This is after months of citizens from those two CARICOM countries flying into Belize, but never flying out. It's believed to be part of a human smuggling operation to get these people north to the US by land. Government calls it rampant smuggling, but we've seen articles in the Jamaican press which warn that it violates the spirit, if not the letter of the CARCOM Single Market and Economy if not the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Today the Prime Minister stressed that for Jamaicans it is only a proposal - which, we note is not what the Cabinet brief said two weeks ago:
