Since the start of this month, Belizeans who are applying for a passport no longer need a recommender. Today the PM and Minister of Immigration said the change was long overdue and that the process should be made simple for Belizeans.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"This is a big thing because as a citizen of this country, you have a right to get a passport. You have your birth certificate and you have all of the necessary. Nobody need to recommend you to get a passport."
"And then what has happened after that? You have a lot of JPs standing over by the passport office and you come from Orange Walk and they say, I need to sign. I don't know nobody here. They go out there and say, hey, I am a GP, I'll sign and they charge you a fee. What you shouldn't do. It is unnecessary. There are certain things that we have to move from immigration. For instance, when people apply for permanent residency or they apply for nationality, they can't leave the country for more than a year."
"Those are things that were put in place 50, 60, maybe 100 years ago. Today, people have to travel. Once you can show that you're living in Belize and you may need to go to business in the United States or Mexico or wherever it is, you should be allowed to."
"Or if you go to visit a family that's sick or whatever, that should not prevent you from getting your PR or your nationality. So we have to be modernizing these laws in immigration and to make it more transparent and easier for those that are applying and those that need the services from the immigration department."
