Belize Could Receive Third Group of Asylum Seekers Under U.S. Agreement

Belize could be preparing to receive a third group of asylum seekers under its Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. However, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oscar Arnold, says the government has not yet received official confirmation that another transfer will take place, but that talks have begun.

Oscar Arnold, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “For the safe third country, I believe that at the end of September we will also provide whatever the sum total of the individuals that will come in. So far, I don’t officially, we don’t have anything in country as yet. And we’re awaiting because it could be tomorrow that we are notified by email that we need to do due diligence on this number of individuals. And then we start that process from there.”

The agreement allows the United States to propose the transfer of eligible third-country nationals to Belize, where their applications for protection are processed. Belize, however, retains the authority to review each case and accept or reject the proposed transfer. The first arrival under the agreement was a forty-one-year-old Haitian national who entered Belize on July 10. A second group of seven foreign nationals arrived on July 30, bringing the total number of transfers to eight.