Immigration Dept. seizes suspicious passports
In just under three months since police began their investigation into the affairs of the Ministry of Immigration, officers have discovered enough information to substantiate the allegation that a significant number of people who had never set foot in Belize, obtained Belizean citizenship and passports through deception and corruption. And while that seemingly endless probe has not yet produced any arrests, the Immigration Department is not waiting to take action. According to the current Director of Immigration, Colonel Peter Parchue, by the department’s count, during January fifteenth and July thirty-first, there were one thousand four hundred and eighty passports issued to men, women and children hailing from countries including Lebanon, Pakistan, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. And while the findings of the police probe have not been made public, the evidence discovered has triggered the decision to confiscate all Belizean passports presented at Belize’s points of entry, dated between mid-January and the end of July. As of today, immigration officials have confiscated more than fifty such passports. The holders have been allowed to remain in Belize on the premise that they would be able to provide crucial information, especially as to how they obtained those documents, to investigators. And those investigators will need all the help they can get to sort through the mass of paperwork. Parchue says that before January fifteenth there were three thousand nationality applications pending. Between January fifteenth and July thirty-first, one thousand, three hundred and three more people applied for nationality… that’s a grand total of four thousand, three hundred and three “wanna-be” Belizeans. From all those applications, one thousand, two hundred applications were approved, but because families can use one application form, the total number of approved applicants is actually much higher. And this is where it gets interesting. Of the twelve hundred approved applications, only nine hundred and forty were picked up by the applicants in Belmopan…two hundred and sixty did not. So the question arises: why, after months of waiting, would anyone not pick up their citizenship papers as soon as possible?
And while immigration officials try to sort out the paperwork, the Prime Minister has appointed a commission of inquiry to review the procedures at the Immigration Department. According to Commission Chairman, Ombudsman Paul Rodriguez, his probe will have a different focus than that of the cops.
Paul Rodriguez, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
“We will do what we can to avoid handling documents that we think are incriminating, because of the technical arguments that a defence counsel may use, or could use to have the case thrown out, to declare a mistrial because of some technicality. So if we want justice, and I think if we want justice in this matter, if we want transparency, I think perhaps the best thing to do…as we would say in Creole is to, “ride wit the programme” right now.”
Even though the Prime Minister has already promised to tighten “loose laws” to prevent corruption at the Immigration Department, it is hoped that between the two investigations, the long list of interviewees and the pile of paperwork, someday soon, those who betrayed the country will be brought to justice.
