1 day ago
1
The Ministry of Immigration, Governance and Labour has officially launched a series of national stakeholder consultations as part of efforts to develop Belize’s first-ever National Migration and Development Policy. The consultations, being carried out in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the International Organization for Migration, IOM, bring together representatives from government, the private sector, civil society, academia, migrant communities, and development partners. The week-long exercise, which runs from May 15 to the 22nd, includes consultations in Belmopan, Belize City, Punta Gorda, and San Pedro, with discussions focused on migration governance, labour needs, national security, tourism, and community development. According to the Ministry, the policy is intended to create a more coordinated and evidence-based framework to guide Belize’s migration management moving forward. Minister of Immigration Kareem Musa says today’s launch marks the beginning of a comprehensive national discussion.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration, Governance and Labour: “Because while it is that we have systems in place and we have programs in place like our Amnesty program which was recently concluded a few months ago that are considered a huge success across the world, at the same time we cannot be operating in a vacuum or operating in a silo. It has to be that nationally we know where we are going and charting that way forward from a ministry perspective including not just migrants coming to Belize but also Belize moving away, emigrating to the United States and other parts of the world including the diaspora in the discussion. And so we’re going to, like I said, develop this over a period of time. Hopefully in the next few months we’ll be able to conclude that. We are going to be drafting the policy after the consultations between May and July and I’m hoping towards the end of the year, September, October, we should be able to have our first draft.”
Additional sessions throughout the week will examine issues affecting investment, tourism, security, agriculture, construction, and migrant communities across the country. Minister Musa says several concerns have already emerged from the early consultations, including ongoing labour shortages being experienced across key productive sectors.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration, Governance and Labour: “As you heard this morning we have a lot of challenges when it comes to our labour market especially our seasonal migrant labour. There’s a lot of issues, as you know, in terms of our citrus industry, our banana industry, and other industries as well that we are seeking workers to work in agriculture field. But we want to do so in a very structured way, with policies in place and with a framework in place that we know exactly where it is we’re going. So labour shortage is just one of them. You can look at the education sector, you can look at the health sector. All of these areas are areas that we’re hoping to get the input from the professionals in these fields so that we can form this very comprehensive policy. It’s going to be a holistic operation, a holistic consultation, like I said going forward. So we hope to touch on each and every aspect of the Ministry of Immigration.”
English (US) ·