And turning back now to more from Prime Minister Briceno, he weighed in on Belize's recent Amnesty and one of the reasons it may not have been as successful as his government would have liked.
But he's not putting it down to the $500.00 cost. Here's what he said when asked whether or not that price was just too high:
Reporter
"Do you believe the high application fee for Amnesty is what contributed to the low numbers and also, what will you be doing now in relation to the others, I know the Minister of immigration had said that you would all look at that?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"As what he rightly said we will have to take a look at tha,t and probably maybe the high fee but I don't think the fee was very high to begin with, $500, ok but more importantly I think that more importantly a lot of these people were still afraid that maybe you know if you go and give in your name that they will probably hold you and try to take you out of the country, we have tried to do everything that we possibly can to be able to get these people legalized who have a legal status in Belize but also there is a cost to everything and I believe that we should not cheapen ourselves as a country that you know just for free, I think that everybody should pay a fee in trying to be able to stay in Belize legally."
