Wagiya FC Manager Accused of Withholding Players’ Passports

Tonight, the Premier League of Belize is looking into some serious allegations against Wagiya Football Club’s manager, Nelson Moss. He’s accused of holding on to the passports of several foreign players and housing them in less-than-ideal conditions. News Five spoke with American national Devien Bell, who says when he arrived in Belize back in July, he handed over his passport to Moss, believing it was for a work permit. But that never happened. Instead, Bell’s visitor’s permit expired while Moss still had his passport. When Moss finally took Bell and other players to the Immigration Department, it was too late. The young athletes, who came to Belize chasing their football dreams, ended up behind bars, and now, Moss is under investigation. Here’s what Bell told us about his experience.

 

Devien Bell, American Football Athlete

“Me, Yael and Russel are the three guys who essentially went with Mister Moss to the Immigration Center and he demanded that we pay him two hundred, four hundred Belizean dollars for our passports to get renewed. So, we scrambled what monies we could, asked our parents, can you send us some money, because we were finally going to get our passports renewed and get our visas. But, we just needed a little help. We finally get there and that is when they started separating us in different rooms and asking questions, because initially, one of the officers, she was slightly aggressive to Mr. Moss, to say it was irresponsible, this is not the first time, and so we are kinda just sitting there like maybe this is not a good idea, maybe we are in trouble. So, we started getting interviewed when all of a sudden it is an active investigation. They started telling us we need to go back to the house, pick up our stuff and they were going to investigate the house. So, they separated us from Mr. Moss. We drive back to the house, get all our belongings and come back to the immigration center with everybody else. So they started interviewing, investigating everybody, trying to collect a solid story so that there are holes. but by the end of it, they said that unfortunately, even though we were withheld form our passports and were not getting paid, or based off of the treatment we were receiving and unprofessionalism from the club, we were still illegals in the country and that we would have to go to jail. So they put us in the back of a van with all our belongings and we were sent to jail.”