Officials say suspected terrorist?s passport application appeared normal
As News Five first reported last night, an Indian man arrested in Canada in 1998 “as a threat to national security” was deported to Belize earlier this month after acquiring a Belizean passport under our Economic Citizen Investment Program. Today no one seems to know if Iqbal Singh is still in the country, or how someone classified by the Canadian Intelligence Service as being an “active” member of the Babbar Khalsa International, an organization described as being associated with a Sikh separatist movement in India was able to obtain economic citizenship while jailed in Canada awaiting deportation. According to the Director of the Belize Economic Citizenship Investment Program (BECIP) Joey Belisle, there was nothing unusual about Iqbal Singh’s application. He never indicated, as required by the application form that he had been sought or detained by Canadian authorities. In addition, his attorneys vouched for him and a check with INTERPOL failed to reveal any details of his alleged involvement in the Babbar Khalsa. He says in light of recent information, the matter may have to be reviewed.
Joey Belisle, Director BECIP
?Might have been involved perhaps is the operative thing there, because as far as our information, based on the application forms we sent out and the notarized papers that came back to us, plus the lawyers for Mr. Singh who communicated with us, we have nothing on our files including INTERPOL report, to anyway suggest that he had any criminal past or recent past. on that basis, the scrutinizing committee is more inclined to go by the information that we receive under legitimate basis, that is, by our application forms. The lawyers for Mr. Singh, wrote us the notarized papers, indicating that Mr. Singh has never been brought up for any criminal offense in Canada. We have already sometime in late November, sent over to his lawyers our papers saying that our position at the unit, is that if for any reason we find out that information was given to us, as a misleading piece of information, then we would recommend a review of his passport.?
Janelle Chanona
The fact that it can happen, and might indeed one day threaten Belize’s national security, do you think INTERPOL is enough then?
Joey Belisle
?So far, we don’t have any other international agency to turn to, we have one call EPIC, whatever that means, it is equivalent to a kind of INTERPOL and we utilize both of them if necessary, so that what you are saying make sense. Because of this particular situation, where INTERPOL was involved and did not give an adverse report, perhaps we ought to look at either another source, or along with INTERPOL to have double another checks.?
Although applicants for economic citizenship are required to list an intended address in Belize, once a passport is granted Belisle says the unit is not required to do any follow up on the client. The address Singh gave was that of a Belize City hotel that has since closed down. Currently ten immigration consultants have been approved by the government to act as economic citizenship agents. Many of them advertise their services on websites and tell News Five they most often get clients through this medium or through referrals from attorneys abroad. Applications cannot be made directly to the Ministry of Immigration, but must be made through the consultants, who are allowed by law to charge up to twenty percent of the fees and “contribution” to the economic development of Belize paid by the client. In the case of a single male such as Iqbal Singh, he would have paid fifteen thousand US in registration fees and contributed at least twenty-five thousand US to the “Belize Economic Citizenship Fund”. With another ten thousand US in consultant fee tacked on, Singh probably paid about fifty thousand US dollars, one hundred thousand Belize for his Belizean passport.
