Honduran Woman Alleges Immigration Officers Demanded Thousands at Belize Border

Police are investigating a Honduran woman’s complaint that immigration officers at Belize’s western border repeatedly demanded money before stamping her passport.  The thirty-seven-year-old woman told police she paid three thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars in four separate transactions between January and August of this year. She alleges that officers asked for money to stamp her exit and re-entry and, later, to extend her stay in Belize. She says she placed the cash inside her passport and handed it over at the immigration booths.  According to her report, the payments ranged from four hundred to twelve hundred dollars. The woman says she went to the Immigration Office in Orange Walk this month because she could no longer afford to keep paying. She was advised to make a police report, which she did on Thursday.  Investigators have taken her statement, a witness statement and copies of her passport pages showing the stamps. Police have not reported any charges. The woman’s account remains an allegation while the investigation continues.