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The flight between Havana Cuba and Belize; it comes every Wednesday –and it seems that all too frequently there are issues with a few of the passengers who either have shady visas or pose other security risks. Today, 21 passengers that had been denied entry into Belize were sent back on the flight; 6 of them were Kenyans who came last week, nine were Chinese who also came last week and six were Haitians that arrived today.

According to the Director of Immigration Gareth Murillo, the Kenyans did not require a visa because Kenya is a member of the Commonwealth. But Murillo says they were denied entry and deported because his Department was not satisfied that they were really tourists and suspected that they wanted to use Belize as a transit point. After arriving last Wednesday, they were kept in custody for a week, served with an order to leave and deported back to Cuba today.

As for the mainland Chinese who were sent back – Murillo says they got legitimate visas but the procedure to approve those visas by the Belizean Embassy in Cuba was not properly adhered to – so they were also sent back. Murillo could not say why Embassy staffers had departed from procedure.

According to our reports – there were security concerns about at least two of the passengers that were sent back today. Murillo could not comment on this as he said his department is not responsible for that level of security screening.