Parchue: Immigration Dept. under control

for his part, Director of Immigration, Colonel Peter Parchue, believes that the days of scandal are a relic of the past…and despite strong evidence that many members of his staff were involved in corruption, he maintains that all is well on his watch.

Col. Peter Parchue, Director of Immigration

“I’ve maintained the same staff that I met when I took over the responsibilities for the Immigration Department. I’ve done a little bit of reshuffling, movement of people to maximise on the experience of those individuals that I’ve seen much more worthy to do certain things within the department. But to say that anyone has been suspended, no, absolutely no.”

Stewart Krohn

“Does it concern you that perhaps a fairly large number of people within your system very likely were involved in illegal, unethical, perhaps even treasonous acts, that are still working for you?”

Col. Peter Parchue

“Of course it concerns me. However, I believe that I cannot judge the people that are working for me based on their past. I must judge them on what service they provide to me, and the quality of service that they are providing. Based on what the media had exposed, it is clear that something went wrong; as a result I’m there. Under my tenure, I’m sure that with my leadership they provide competent service and quality service to the Belizean people. And in the event anything should go wrong under my tenure, I will take the appropriate action to get it resolved.”

It is not known how many foreigners were illegally sold Belizean nationality, but estimates range from dozens to thousands. The scandal was exposed by the local media in July of last year.