Two nights ago we told you about three suspicious sets of nationality documents that we had possession of, and one more that we had seen. All of them
had serious irregularities – and two of them were signed by Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse in 2012. On Monday, Hulse told us that he now knows that
files were sent to him – which contained fraudulent elements. He ended up signing them – and in the cases we saw passports were issued – apparently to
persons who did not necessarily meet the qualifications for citizenship. In an interview conducted this evening, Hulse told us about one nationality
document he signed – which resulted in a passport the Immigration Department now wants recalled:…
Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"This file came to our attention when we were doing our research because the copy of the certificate has no seal. If you notice that the copy, it has
no seal and therefore without a seal it indicated no swearing in. And without swearing in it indicated that the process had not been completed.
Therefore the person is not officially a citizen because that process needs to be completed. The person at the time, the persons at the time who issued
the passport should have seen the certificate. That is the only way they would have known the person is a Belizean and should have noticed that there
was no seal on it and therefore question it; but it was not questioned, obviously and the passport was issued. That file was sent to the police also
for investigation."
Jules Vasquez
"That makes it highly irregular."
Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"Well that makes it highly irregular that you would get a passport based on a certificate that is not completed. And we have the records of the
passport issued and who issues and when and dates and everything."
"As the minister signing and a file comes complete and comes with recommendation from the director, there was no reason that I would have not signed
it. What I am concerned about is that the process did not continue because it should have gotten its seal and there should have been a swearing in to
complete that process. Without that he is not a citizen of Belize."
Jules Vasquez
"But he has a passport."
Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"But he has a passport."
Jules Vasquez
"So where ever he appears with this passport, it should be taken from him."
Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"Exactly, we have a notice out for the passport. The notice has been issued and re-issued to all the port commanders that where ever and whenever that
passport shows up; we have notices for several passports. Whenever that shows up the passport should be recovered and the person detained."
The extensive interview was conducted this evening – and tomorrowyou'll hear more as we ask Hulse the tough questions – and he brings the heat on his
predecessor from more than 20 years ago, Said Musa.
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