Case of Unaccompanied Belizean Child Flagged by Local Authorities

A Belizean minor, identified as a standard-four student from a Belize City primary school was among a group of unaccompanied children from Central America   making their way to the United States. To protect the confidentiality of the girl and her family, her identity will not be disclosed at this time.  But the child, who is bilingual, was interviewed this week in a video posted by Brietbart News. Here in Belize, the case was immediately flagged by authorities.

Lliani Arthurs

Lliani Arthurs, Director, Department of Human Services

“Our protocol has been effected in terms of making contact with the family locally and also making contact with our U.S. counterparts so that we can begin to the exchange information and to confirm the safety of the child wherever she is.  Indeed, for the Department of Human Services, the issue of migration isn’t new. We know that people move for different reasons. We have been monitoring this situation along with the ATIPS Council since 2016 whereby we have been documenting unaccompanied minors who come to Belize from Central America and we have seen a steady increase in those children since then with a decline in 2020 when our borders were closed because of COVID-19. What we have found is that these children move for varying reasons. We found that some of them are trying to reach the United States; others are coming to Belize because family is here or they are coming seeking better economic opportunities, some are coming for education reasons and others are fleeing because of gang situations or some type of threat.”