Camera caught getaway driver; no more visas for Asians in Cuba
The ministers pointed out what we had reported last week; that the visa numbers were real but not yet issued, which means they were fraudulent. While he listed out measures to improve security at the PGIA, Carlos Perdomo singled out one particular Embassy from which visas for the moment won’t be issued for Chinese Nationals. And while that may plug one hole in a well developed and orchestrated human smuggling ring, the use of cameras came up at the conference. According to Doug Singh, cameras outside the airport building captured the Asians as they stepped into a van. At least two vehicles used to transport the Chinese Nationals have been impounded.
doug singh
Doug Singh, Minister of Police
“They had very little to declare. That’s what our surveillance video camera demonstrate each one of these passengers had a small duffle bag that they carrier with them as they entered the van that was waiting for them—that they just might have passed without declaration. This, however, has to be proven. We know who the person was that drove the van for the nationals. We have the license plates number and the individual has been interviewed and as matter of fact he may have been detained. We have impounded both vehicles.”
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“As a way to helping with Chinese nationals, last week I ordered a moratorium particularly from Cuba which is a little bit close to Haiti and so forth. Just in case there might be some collusion internationally, I have ordered a moratorium on all visas of Chinese or non Cuban persons trying to obtain visas from our embassy in Cuba.”
Jose Sanchez
“Mister Perdomo, you mentioned Cuba. Why clamp down on Cuba? Does anyone in Cuba has access to those vaulted visa numbers?”
Carlos Perdomo
carlos perdomo
“No, no. But since we are suspecting a very large international ring and since you don’t know where they have been. The main area where they request visitor’s visa is usually from Havana. They have special arrangements to visit Havana from Mainland China.”
Doug Singh
“To get a Belize visa, in many cases someone has to travel. And the people seeking a Belize visa maybe for just for the purpose of moving or transshipping or just passing through the country, cannot go to the United States where our embassy offers visas, cannot go to the United Kingdom, to England where we issue visas and cannot come to Belize directly where we issue visas. I think we only issue visas from five locations in the world—Cuba being one of them. But to get to Cuba, many of these countries have an open and I don’t think there is a visa requirement between China and Cuba. So Chinese nationals will travel to Cuba easily on their way to coming to Belize. So it is suspect whenever planes come from Cuba, or planes come from Haiti or Dominican Republic or certain countries. We are not singling out Cuba because we think there is a tremendous amount of irregularities going on there. In fact in these particular cases, we know the visas aren’t valid because we have the original visas. So it is not because of any irregularity that occurred at the Embassy in Cuba. We single out Cuba merely because I think that is where a number of these people are able to go to—the Russians and the Chinese—and come to Belize from there.”
as far as i am concern, only a handful of individuals have access to the immigration vault….
the question that arises is:
who all have access to the vault that could have provided the GENUINE numbers for the fake visas???
Thus, it is clear that someone holding a high public post is involved? CEO of immigration? senior officials?
Until some heads roll, there is no incentive for the employees to have integrity, someone familiar with the procedures & access to the visa numbers is in the middle & if Belize is the weakest link, they will simply go to our neighboring countries as tourists & walk across our border.
Who made a deal with the Cubans to look the other way? It seems odd that they did not fly to Cancun or some other tourist haunt & work their way north. Pretending to be Japanese tourist was a good cover until the US Immigration stopped sleeping at the border.
Why are the high ranking involved not arrested as yet? I am sure that it wasn’t solely those six officers involved. If the Minister, CEO and Director responsible for Immigration knew nothing then it is true that they are all incompetent and should ALL be relieves of their duties as well. Am presently wondering what tier now will the US government put us under when it comes to human trafficking and smuggling of persons….Belize has always been on the worse tier, so what can the Belizean people expect …..What?
When You throw mud on a glass window it stains the glass and leave a dirty STREAK– Usually
you get a window or glass cleaner to come and remove the DIRT—- Belizeans don’t care who
goes to CUBA, CHINA, RUSSIA, ETC—they care about their homeland and there people who
have been used like wastecloth—they care about trusting their leaders and having leaders that
will lead and build up the country—not the one’s who are ready to full their coffers and in doing
so railroad decent BELIZEAN families–
It is completely obvious that this matter was expedited by higher authorities and has been happening for years. This is just another type of crime that Belizeans keep turning their heads away from until it begins to affects them directly. Please, clean up the corruption – afterall our tax dollars are paying for it. Get the work done. Thank you.
Guinea Grass….not really, you don’t have to have access to the vault to know the numbers, remember none of the visas came out only the numbers and they are numbered in sequence. So any immigration office who issues one legitimate visa can note the number and will automatically know the Visas in the vault have a higher numbers on them!!
The fact of the matter is that there is no competent person in government running the country. People need to realize this. The crime, the economic situation and now an immigration scandal. Belize is looked upon as a backwater, 4th world country. I think we’ver regressed by 20 years. Sad! Very very sad! Can someone please ask the UK to take us back and send some civil servants who actually know what they are doing?
Like I said lots of smoke screen, it goes way beyond just the visas, there are lots of logistics involved in getting an international airline to come to Belize on a chartered flight and at a time that is outside normal working hours of the airport which means someone real big is behind this and playing dumb think about this the traffic control officers, the immigration officers, the custom officers and the list goes on everyone had to be in place and awaiting these flights maybe this would be a good time to look at those BTL records and see what conversations took place between Belize and the people at the Belize embassy in Cuba come on Prime minister after all you are all about transparency and accountability if that is true this situation should be really cutting against the grain for you, why such deafening silence coming from you. Lets Belize Talk on twitter.
from the moment they said Japanese it did not sound correct. Japanese have a very high standard of living and one of the top average incomes in the world. that means they acn easily get visas for USA UK and the EU because they can provide bank statements to show that they can afford to pay their way will they are in these 1st world countries. By the way Japan is a 1st world country too.