The Ministry of Immigration has launched a week long series of national consultations as part of their effort to develop a migration and development policy.
The team, which includes the UNDP and the IOM, will be traveling across the country to engage with stakeholders.
Today's opening session in Belmopan saw discussions around national security, labor migration, and more. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story:
Today marked a big step for the Ministry of Immigration as it embarked on the launch of a National Stakeholder Consultation for Belize's first Migration and Development Policy. As the Minister explained, the policy is necessary to create a national framework to better guide matters dealing with migration:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration
"And it's going to be pretty much a very comprehensive national consultation carried out by the Ministry of Immigration in conjunction with the UNDP as well as IOM. It really is to get the feedback of stakeholders as we chart the way forward for our first ever national migration policy because while it is that we have systems in place and we have programs in place like our amnesty program which was recently concluded a few weeks ago that are considered a huge success across the world, at the same time, we cannot be operating in a vacuum, or operating in a silo, it has to be that nationally, we know where we are going and charting that way forward from a ministry perspective including not just migrants coming to Belize but Belizeans moving away, immigrating to the United States and other parts of the world, including the diaspora in the discussion and so we're going to develop this over a period of time hopefully in the next few months we'll be able to conclude that."
The launch of the consultations today included a stakeholder engagement sessions where the attendees were able to voice their concerns. Musa told us what came out of that session.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration
"As you heard this morning, we have a lot of challenges when it comes to our labor market. Especially our seasonal, migrant labor. There's a lot of issues, as you know, in terms of our citrus industry, our banana industry and other industries as well, that we are seeking workers to work in the agriculture field. But we want to do so in a very structured way with policies in place and with a framework in place that we know exactly where it is we're going. So, labor shortage is just one of them. You can look at the education sector, you can look at the health sector. All of these areas are areas that we're hoping to get the input from the professionals in these fields, so that we can form this very comprehensive policy."
The consultations will run from May 15th to the 22nd across Belmopan, Belize City, Bella Vista and San Pedro. The consolidated report is expected to be presented to the Ministry in late July.
