U.S. supports migrant hubs as Belize amnesty program winds down

Published by BBNTEAM at February 26, 2023

Tags

Posted: Sunday, February 26, 2023. 10:25 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: With Belize’s Immigration amnesty program scheduled to end this week, U.S. Ambassador Michelle Kwan and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Director for Central America and Mexico Programs Christopher M. Cushing participated in the Amnesty Mobile Hub at the Belmopan Comprehensive School on Saturday.

USAID and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and UNICEF, have been supporting the mobile amnesty hubs set up to provide access to services required to apply for amnesty and have catered to more than six thousand seekers of asylum and migrants since the program began last August – approximately half of the 12 thousand or so that have applied.

The hubs are a single location providing information and services with support from the Belizean government and local non-governmental organizations, embassies, village councils and other leaders participating. According to the U.S. Embassy, they “build on the experience of previous mobile services deployed under the USAID-funded Integrated Responses on Migration from Central America regional program with IOM that works in six Central American countries” and are supported by the U.S. government.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Belize ~ We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages. Your content is delivered instantly to thousands of users in Belize and abroad! Contact us at mаrkеtі[email protected]еаkіngbеlіzеnеwѕ.соm or call us at 501-601-0315.