Senate Clashes Over Belize’s Safe Third Country Deal

Today, the Senate debated the highly controversial safe third country agreement.  If it goes through, Belize will start taking in asylum seekers from Central America and the Caribbean who’ve been turned away by the United States. The Opposition is against the agreement, calling it a surrendering of Belize’s sovereignty and challenges the government to take the decision to the people, while the administration says the agreement is about championing human rights.

 

Patrick Faber, Opposition Senator

“The Briceno administration, in our view Madam President, is compromising Belize’s dignity and independence in exchange for, let me put it the way my friend the Senator put it over there, for a diplomatic favour or diplomatic friendliness. We Madam President ask that we abandon this agreement or at very least, that the government comes clean, telling us the details. Let’s get the details. Go out and do whatever consultations you need to do with the citizenry of this country and then you bring this back because as you said, it cannot be enacted until the Senate passes it. What is the rush? What is the rush! You tell me what is the rush if the U.S. noh di try pressure yo fi do it.”

 

Hector Guerra, Government Senator

“As much as you hear that the heavens are falling down, that we are ceding our sovereignty as a country, in fact this agreement is an exercise of our sovereignty. It reserves our right to accept, to reject, to even terminate the agreement at any time -suspend at anytime, if we believe that we do not at a particular point in time have the capacity to deal with these individuals. And so I’d really just like to end by saying that this agreement, contrary to what the Opposition and Senator Faber wants the Belizean people to believe is not about Belize becoming a dumping ground. It’s not about Belize ceding sovereignty. It’s about control, compassion, a recognition of human rights.”