C.A. Immigration Directors meet in Belize

For the past two days, Central American immigration officials have been meeting in Belize to discuss issues currently facing the region. According to Belize’s Acting Director of Immigration Gareth Murillo, high on the list of discussion topics is trafficking in persons.

Gareth Murillo, Acting Director of Immigration, Belize
“In terms of the region and in particular Belize, we believe that the situation is not as bad as some would make it out to be. Our strategy is concentrating on preventing on preventing our own citizens from being victims of trafficking. We know that we are countries of destination and of transit and we have been putting more effort though into seeing that our citizens do not become victims.”

“Anti-corruption efforts are always at the top of our list of priorities, in particularly, when it comes to our training needs and we have been looking into seeking assistance in developing some curricula as it relates to corruption.”

Jose Pires, Regional Representative, International Organization for Migration
“We have a very large experience in the field of counter trafficking. This is a phenomena that is giving us a lot of difficulties because it is increasing. Governments are doing the best to reduce the impact to the phenomenon but traffickers have a lot of means, big money and they also have creativity and it is not an easy thing to do because you cannot resolve the problem of traffic by decree. This is a social phenomenon that requires the participation of the civil society, and all levels of society, from the Government, police, immigration officials and we are dealing with that matter.”

Participants of the twenty-seventh Central American Commission of Directors of Migration included representatives from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua as well as officials from the European Commission and the International Organization for Migration.