Will the Government Publicize the Safe Third Country Agreements  

Just days ago, Belize and the United States announced a two-year deal aimed at giving refugees a place to seek asylum after deportation from the U.S. It applies to Central American and Caribbean nationals, except Guatemalans, and critics are sounding the alarm. Who exactly will be allowed in? And how will Belize handle a possible population increase while battling high inflation? We put those questions to Foreign Affairs Minister Francis Fonseca. Here’s what he told us.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Of course , yeah. We already we’ve already shared it with the clerk, the senators. So the senators should have access to that. It’s not a secret document. So yes, they will be able to have that and debate it. I already made the point that there’s a process that this has to follow. We sign the agreement. But it has to be ratified by the Senate. So there will have to be tabled, it’ll have to be tabled at the Senate. We’ve already sent it over to the Senate. It’ll have to be debated there. We will have to respond to any questions and concerns raised by the senators, but there’s also another limb which will require that we amend our domestic legislation, right? So for example, the refugees Act will have to be amended. And so that will have to be taken to Parliament, to the House of Representatives. There again, we will present that amended bill, and we’ll have an opportunity to debate that and discuss that. So it’ll be a very open, transparent process. And then the final point is that, as I have said, and I said in my statement in the house on last Friday this entire agreement will be underpinned by what we call operational procedures. Operational procedures. So the signing was just the beginning of the process, and we have to finalize those operational procedures between ourselves and the United States. And only when we have finalized that, when it has been ratified, when we have done the domestic legislation. And we have finalized and agreed upon the operational procedures. Only then will the agreement take effect. So those steps have to be followed, and all of those steps will be very open and transparent. As I have already said, Belize, this position is very clear. We have a statement of principles that govern our position as it relates to the operational procedures, which means that we will determine where, which countries of origin these people will come from for that. In our case, it’ll be people from Central America and the Caribbean in Central America, with the exception of Guatemala, for obvious reasons. And then we will place a cap on the number of people who will be able to be transferred to Belize. And our position is that number should not be more than ten people per annum.”