Longtime Belama Residents Face Eviction Over Squatting Claims

Squatting isn’t new to Belize City, but in Belama Phase Five, the issue is heating up. For years, families have settled on land they hoped to one day call their own. But now, with a two-day land clinic underway, the Ministry of Natural Resources is drawing a hard line. While first-time landowners are getting help, squatters looking to legitimize their stay are being told that they cannot do so on already allocated land. Tonight, News Five’s Paul Lopez takes us inside the growing tension over land rights in the Old Capital.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Back in late July, Deputy Mayor Eluide Miller, through his attorney, wrote to Francisco Solanis informing him that he was trespassing. The letter claimed that Solanis had built a house on a parcel of land in Belama Phase Five without permission and gave him just fourteen days to pack up and leave. Fast forward to this week, a two-day land clinic hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the PUP Freetown Office is shedding light on just how widespread squatting really is in the area. We visited the clinic and spoke with several residents, some who’ve been living on these lands for five, even ten years, only to find out they’re occupying property that already has legal owners. Now, they’re facing the harsh reality that their homes may not be theirs after all.

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 1

“I have been living in Belama Phase Five more than ten years. We used to cross in lone London bridge. We used to haul material in lone London bridge. When flood hurricane, obviously they would come down, because the foundation is not hundred. It is swamp. As it came down we would build. Now, since they push the street,  we could full the land even more better. It is very unfair that so many people here, even the Belizean as well, they invest a lot.”

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 2

“So when I went in yesterday, I sneak in because they take off my number. So I sneak in and when I went there they said miss your lot is taken, someone has already applied. I got what she was saying, that happened this year, and I the apply from long time, so how come they will tell me it will apply already. So they told me we need to wait until the minister come and he will see what he will do with us.”

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 3

“Just before the pandemic, around 2018, we started to build slowly because we can’t build fast. It’s my husband, me and our two children. We are all Belizeans. One of the biggest challenges is when we went to ask for help when there was a hurricane, and they’ve never given us any help when there was a hurricane. When it came, and we lost everything we owned, we had to figure it out ourselves. So, when we went to go and apply for the land, why were they telling us that someone has already applied for it when the area is supposedly in process?”

 

Freetown Area Rep Francis Fonseca says he’s been working with residents since 2003 to ensure fairness. But with improved infrastructure in Belama Phase Five, more people are showing up to claim land that’s already been allocated. Fonseca says the Ministry of Natural Resources is stepping in to sort things out, though for squatters, the question now is: where will they go with their homes and families?

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 1

“They want me to move, most of them they want us to move. How will we move our house and where will we go? That is our savings put in the house and people work hard to have what they have and to make them just want to relocate us and this person does not even know how the property look.”

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 2

“It is so hard to build something and now to move, where will I move.”

 

Paul Lopez

“How do you process the thought that this was national land and essentially what was done on your part and other parts was squatting, how do you process that criticism?”

 

Voice of Belama Phase Five Resident 2

“I don’t know, because people went there and got land and just like me everybody else did the same thing.”

 

The law’s pretty clear, if you’re squatting on national land, you’re breaking it. And if you’re trespassing on private property, you could be removed… at your own expense. But despite that, some squatters in Belama Phase Five say they’re not going anywhere. They’re willing to pay for the land they’ve been living on and claim they’ve already tried applying through the Lands Department, without success. Now, with the land clinic underway, they’re hoping for a second chance, even as officials stand firm on the rules.

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 1

“I have seen a paper where they want me to relocate to 8 Mile or Saint Mathews, how and if they work deh right yah suh, how will they do that, it is very hard.”

 

Voice of: Belama Phase Five Resident 3

“If I have to pay for the land I will pay for it, but I am not going to move from there. I am not moving from there. I am sorry.”

 

The individuals we spoke with were reportedly told that they must wait to meet with their area representative to determine a way forward. In the meantime, the land clinic was set up to assist people with first-time applications and those who have titles but are facing issues. Many of them received the help they needed at the clinic. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.