Non-national deportees, sent by US, arrive in Belize

The Caribbean Community nation of Belize this week accepted a small contingent of non-national deportees from the US under the controversial safe third country agreement, making it one of the few regional member nations to do so far.

In doing so, the bloc member nation bordering Guatemala has joined St. Kitts in the Eastern Caribbean as CARICOM bloc member nations which have received actual arrivals from the US in recent weeks.

Like officials in St. Kitts and Nevis, both cabinets say they are insisting on accepting deportees mostly from neighboring Caribbean states because they are more culturally in sync with locals in the receiving countries.

In the case of Belize, it has specifically excluded nations from neighboring Guatemala largely because of the simmering border row between the two countries. Belizean officials also say they have no interest in accepting deportees from the US from far flung places like Belarus, largely because of their cultural differences.

Since the Trump administration came to power 19 months ago, it has been leaning on the region to accept deportees from the US, allegedly those with misdemeanor and immigration offenses as well as those who are either current or failed asylum seekers.

Officials say that most regional member states have either signed onto the program or at advanced stages of negotiations. These include Antigua, whose leadership has openly accused the US of bullying it to accept up to 120 arrivals each year compared to a so far firm total of 10 as proposed by the cabinet. Prime Minister Gaston Browne has blamed his administration’s refusal to accept 120 ‘strangers’ for recent tourist visa limitations imposed on his federation with Barbuda, saying this amounts to super power bullyism. The US just last week named Antigua and neighboring Dominican as countries whose nations must lodge a visa application bond of up to $20,000 to ensure their return home.

Speaking to local television station News 5, US embassy spokesman Luke Martin said a batch of about seven arrived in the country in the past week.

“These are all regional people and they all requested to come to Belize,” Martin said. “The government reviewed it, everybody’s case. In this case they passed the security background clearance and they felt that this would be a good fit for them. The majority of them were from Haiti but there were Central Americans as well. Belize is a great destination both for Central Americans and the Caribbean. You have got cultural connections in both directions. You have got the language opportunities here for those that are coming from the Central American countries as well. These are people looking for homes and they chose Belize as a place to go through this asylum process,” he said.