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Belize’s connection with its diaspora community in the United States is once again taking center stage, as preparations ramp up for a major cultural and outreach event in South Florida this summer. On Saturday, July 11, the City of Miramar and the Belize City Council will co-host “Miramar Belize Day” under the theme “Culture, Community, and Connection.” The event celebrates the Sister City partnership between the two municipalities and is expected to showcase Belize’s rich culture through music, food, and traditional displays. Among those expected in attendance are Miramar Mayor Wayne M. Messam and representatives from the Belize City Council. In addition to the festivities, the Belize government will roll out a key initiative aimed at supporting Belizeans living abroad. The Ministry of Immigration will deploy its Mobile Passport Hub to Miramar, offering essential services such as passport applications and renewals, as well as nationality-by-descent processing. The mobile unit will operate from July 9 to 11 at the Miramar Town Centre. The outreach builds on previous diaspora engagements, including a recent visit to Houston, Texas, by Prime Minister John Briceño, where he participated in a mobile clinic initiative and met with Belizeans living overseas. During that engagement, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of maintaining strong ties with nationals abroad and encouraged them to explore investment opportunities back home.
John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “Many of them for instance they want to build a house in Belize and they send money home and then many times they’re ripped off. So I was saying maybe the Ministry of Diaspora could identify certain contractors that they believe are qualified and to say you know what these contractors they are good contractors, they are contracts that won’t steal your money and you can come and sign a contract with them and who knows maybe they could say well you know we could take a look every two months, three months just to see that they build your house kind of thing. Like these kinds of things to offer these I believe we could then get more from the diaspora. We get tens of millions of dollars from the diaspora but I think we can do more for them to be able to feel like you know what I could come and invest in Belize, I could build a house in Belize, I could send donations to Belize. There is so much more that can be done and that’s what I was trying to bring across to them.”
The Belize Immigration Mobile Passport Hub will offer services of passport applications and renewals as well as nationality by descent applications.
English (US) ·