And in other news, at the end of March, the Cabinet brief said that Jamaicans traveling to Belize would be required to provide evidence of fully paid non-refundable hotel reservations prior to boarding flights.
Since then, the prime minister has said that it was a proposal, not a policy, and then the Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted that Jamaicans should "pull up" since there are no restrictions in place.
Earlier today, he clarified that the Cabinet brief was misleading, but that they are still examining their options.
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Immigration
"The government is not backpedaling, the Cabinet release was a little bit misleading, unfortunately. We moved immediately after that to clarify the position. The Cabinet took two decisions, one was that we would immediately impose a Visa restriction on Haitians and secondly, the Ministry of Immigration would consult with the Ministry of Tourism to see whether we can put any restrictions on Jamaicans and one example was given, for example the non-refundable hotel reservation that you have paid, and that got conflated as if we had immediately put in place both things. We did not put in place and there is no restrictions at the moment with respect to the Jamaicans. We have to have the meeting with tourism and in fact their Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defense because we believe that in relation to a number of countries, the flow of persons coming through Belize needs to be analyzed carefully and assessed and so we will do that. I have been in touch with the Foreign Minister of Jamaica repeatedly and assured her that we do not yet have in place any measure and if any measure is going to be put in place, we will consult with them first so that they would be aware of that decision but no restriction is in place with respect to Jamaicans."
