Foreign Minister: Belize in Good Standing for Visa Waivers to Canada, Europe

Eamon Courtenay

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Immigration has been actively seeking the removal of visa requirements to travel to Canada and Europe. These visa waivers will allow for ease of travel to these countries. Today, when the media caught up with Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay, he said that it is a process that is taking some time, but it’s promising. He also says that further discussions will be had at an upcoming Canada-CARICOM Summit, for which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended an invite.

Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“We are working the diplomatic channels to try to reach the position where the commission, the European Commission takes a decision that they will open a new list of countries that they will review for Schengen visa waivers. Our hope is that whenever that decision is taken, Belize is on the list. So we are speaking to the European Commission itself, we are speaking to governments bilaterally to say to them this is Belize’s case, we satisfy the requirements, encourage the commission to take the decision and hopefully place Belize on the list. When is that going to happen? Our ambassador had a meeting this week with representatives from the commission and they updated her to say that no decision has yet been taken as to when it is going to happen. They again acknowledge that we have a very strong case, but they were just exchanging notes and giving us some more information as to where things are so that we can try to continue to have the process move forward. I want to say to Belizeans that this is taking longer than we want, but we have to respect the process that is the European Union process. So the case looks good, but it is just a matter of time. With respect to Canada, Prime Minister is leading a delegation to Canada for the summit with CARICOM and Canada at the invitation of Prime Minister Trudeau; that takes place on the eighteenth and nineteenth of this month. It is a very important summit from Belize’s perspective. The first issue that we want to raise bilaterally, not at the summit, is the question of migration, the question of visas. I have received several complaints from Belizeans who find it extremely difficult and frustrating to get visas to travel to Canada. I have had very good discussions with the ambassador, the high commissioner to Belize from Canada on this issue so it is certainly on their radar. And I am hoping that I will be able to speak to some other of their officials, if not the minister, when we go to Canada to say we need Canada to expedite Belizeans who want to go to Canada. There is no reason why Belizeans are put through the hoops that they have to go through, the time. In fact, I had a specific one where somebody waited for over a year before they were able to get a visa. That’s not acceptable to us.”