Immigration Defends Decision to Deny Entry to Jamaican National Amid Allegations of Assault

The Ministry of Immigration has responded to the allegations made by Jamaican national Christopher McIntyre, saying that it is within its right to deny him entry into Belize. The 24-year-old alleges that he was assaulted by police last Friday after Immigration authorities forgot to place him on a flight for deportation. On December 30, McIntyre arrived at the PGIA on a Copa flight from Panama to meet his sister-in-law 55-year-old Sheila Williams, an American national. Williams had invited McIntyre to Belize for his birthday and flew from the United States to meet him here. However, McIntyre was informed by Immigration officials cited an issue since his hotel reservations were not in his name, but rather that of his sister. Despite attempts by the sister to clarify the matter, McIntyre was still denied entry.  As a result, he spent four days at a hotel under police guard.  Eventually, through his attorney, McIntyre agreed to leave the country on January 3.  It turns out, however, that immigration officials forgot to put him on that return flight which eventually led to him being assaulted by the police.  The assault reportedly occurred after the Jamaican began expressing concerns over not being placed on the flight.  Both McIntyre and his sister believe that he was discriminated against, and wrongfully denied entry. Today, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Immigration Tanya Neal Santos explained that while there was an issue with McIntyre being placed on the flight last Friday, it wasn’t that he was forgotten. She clarified the situation and noted that the department is not generally discriminating against Jamaican nationals. 

Tanya Neal Santos, CEO, Ministry of Immigration: “Mr. McIntyre was deemed inadmissible for primarily because he did not demonstrate that he would have been able to support himself while in Belize. And that is actually one of the criteria that would deem a person inadmissible to the country. There’s quite a few. And I would encourage that you take a look at the Chapter 156, which is the Immigration Act, the laws of Belize section 5 in particular to get more clarity on that. So he was deemed inadmissible by the officer who was conducting the review of his documents. That he was forgotten is not accurate. There was some mishaps that happened along the way, but we did get around it and we did actually manage to get him on the next flight out after that. If he was assaulted, I cannot verify that. That is a matter for the police to investigate and determine. I do believe that he has made a report to the police but I cannot verify that either, if that is so. But on our end, he was not violated. We were within our legal rights as immigration ministry and personnel to deny entry. There was some mix-up that happened internally, but it’s not that he was forgotten. We were delayed in getting him on the flight.”

While McIntyre’s attorney believes the department is intentionally giving Jamaican nationals a hard time to enter the country, statistics show otherwise. The data shows that last year more than fifteen hundred Jamaicans arrived at the PGIA with less than fifty denied entry.  Prime Minister and Minister of Immigration John Briceno underscored that while the situation was rather unfortunate, Belize has been increasing its fight against irregular migration in the region.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I want to start off by saying that we welcome any Jamaican coming to Belize. I mean they are brothers or sisters, we all belong to CARICOM and we have the free movement of people. And we’ve had hundreds have come as tourists to spend time in our beautiful country and to enjoy the people and the culture and the food. But there have been many instances when we’ve had people in this issue Jamaicans, that would come to Belize and say they come to on holiday and then after that they disappear. They go across the border onto the United States. We have a responsibility to ensure that that is kept to a minimum and it’s unfortunate that based on what was presented to the department or to the officers, they felt that he would not meet the criteria of having enough funds and to have the hotel or where is it that he was going to stay and it is based on that decision was made.”

McIntyre departed the country on Monday on a flight to Panama, where he and Williams stated they would be spending the remainder of their vacation.