PM defends dual citizenship proposal…

We spoke to the Prime Minister in Belmopan today about his government’s motive for the dual citizenship.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“There’s nothing that, even with the most maligned will in the world, you can suggest is sinister about this. This is an effort, in my view, to remove a fetter that is contradictory and that is discriminatory against Belizeans who were born here, who grow up here but who for circumstances had to go abroad, who in nine cases out of ten, continue to track events in this country, continue to try to participate, continue to try to help but who are being told when you come back having acquired certain privileges as a consequence of the time you spent abroad and the acquisition of the second citizenship, you can’t sit in the National Assembly unless give up that citizenship. Then people who weren’t even born here, who were born in the states or in Canada or Iraq, but who come here and acquire a Belizean citizenship, don’t have to give up their American citizenship or Iraq citizenship or Canadian citizenship in order for them to sit in the National Assembly.”