Displaced Belizeans Can Return Home but With G.O.B.’s Approval

Helen Adolphus

The government is making provisions to allow Belizeans in other countries who have been displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic to return home by the end of May. The COVID-19 Controlled Repatriation for Displaced Belizeans Abroad is asking for Belizeans to first seek the approval of the Government before returning to the country. As of today, displaced Belizeans can visit the COVID-19 website and complete the application form and screening applications. Once the applications are completed and approved, the government will then give the go-ahead for Belizeans to book their travel. One Belizean who is eager to return home is Helen Adolphus who has been stuck in Merida for almost three months along with her child and boyfriend.  They are running low on cash and as COVID-19 cases continued to spike in Quintana Roo, Adolphus is hoping to be back home by the end of the month.

Helen Adolphus, Belizean

“Well I was a little confused because I kept hearing that the border won’t be close for Belizeans, it wasn’t closed as yet. And when my  boyfriend came from a race that he went to he came back around the twenty-first of March and we searched on Facebook and we found out that the borders were closed from the twentieth of March. It has been a little rough because if you go out we have to try to be careful about what we touch and what we do. I am really scared because they said that it could be in the air. I am just worried about my family.”

Hipolito Novelo

“How soon would you want to return home?”

Helen Adolphus

“At least by the end of this month or the beginning of June. My concern, first of all we don’t have a job because we don’t have a working permit. Second, we have no kind of financial help. We used everything we had and I am scared about my daughter’s health.”