A couple weeks ago we told you how Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis Barrow met with two groups of asylum seekers to better understand their plight and rally for a more lenient refugee vetting process. Well, today the CEO with responsibility for immigration and refugees told us more about the role of the refugee eligibility committee and why they can't be too lax.
Edmond Zuniga - CEO, Immigration and Refugees "We set up, we activated our refugee eligibility committee in 2015 when we saw another spike in persons coming particularly from El Salvador since that time we have established an office for the refugee department in Belmopan and it is core located with the immigration department and the ministry. The committee continues to meet in order to determine eligibility of persons and that is what we have been doing we now await the minister's decision as to whether those persons can be granted refugee status so they move from being asylum seekers to refugees."
Courtney Weatherburne "How long does that process take and then in terms of statistics, how many refugees or migrants are coming over the border daily if you have that figure."
Edmond Zuniga "I don't have that figure but what we have right now is a number of 3,000 who have registered as asylum seekers since 2015 when we resumed and of that number the eligibility committee has sat and considered somewhere around."
Reporter "Does that number continue to grow the people who apply?"
Edmond Zuniga "Yes, yes, people keep coming everyday some genuinely seeking refugee some we think are economic migrants and so the eligibility committee has to make that determination, but they are given an opportunity to be heard."
The refugee committee continues to review applications daily.
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