7 News Belize

Hulse Says Saldivar Should Come Forward To Authorities
posted (October 9, 2013)
Tomorrow, the Minister of Immigration, Godwin Hulse, will host a press conference at the Biltmore to address the nation on the internal investigation into the passport scandal. But today, we caught up with him at a Senate Meeting in Belmopan to ask him about the new allegations being made against the Immigration Department.

For the past 2 nights, we've featured PUP Politician and attorney Arthur Saldivar where he's released the names of individuals who he says got their Belizean nationality processed in a very shady manner. He claims that these documents were set aside to be destroyed by personnel within the Immigration Department, and he just happened to acquire them, to expose a clandestine operation running in the background of the department.

He's released copies of the Nationality documents for Taiwanese Yiu Pang Chen, and Chinese Bo-Jie Shan. When we asked Hulse this evening if these documents are missing from the Department, he said that they are in the process of verifying that, and Arthur Saldivar would help if he turned in these supposed originals of all these documents he claims to have acquired:

Daniel Ortiz "Are these documents missing from the Immigration Department?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"We don't know; we're carrying that out now. There is an inventory being undertaken. Police is involved, and we will know what's missing, but it would behoove Mr. Saldivar to do the right thing and turn them over to the Police. Obviously, he can't be holding them as trump cards. I mean, it's all sensational and nice, but people in the department who have released them to him, or have purportedly taken them for destruction are committing an offence, and they need to know that. He also need to know that he can't aid and abet that. It is his responsibility to hand them over to the police. It is good what he's doing as a citizen, but he's is also an attorney, and he knows that. And so, we will request, and I also think we have request already that they be turned over to the Department. How on earth can we fix the problem if these things are being held now in some private hands as trump cards, please man."

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you tell us about the decision which was made yesterday - why was the Nationality Section of the Immigration Department closed down?"

Hon. Godwn Hulse
"Simple and straightforward, we needed to take an inventory of all our files. Here's a man who comes on public radio and says that our files are missing. He has files that we should have in our custody, and we needed to know if that was so, those were duplicates or what they are. So, an inventory is being undertaken."

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you believe, as he as ascerted, that these files were set aside to be destroyed?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"Not by the Department for sure, there is no directive from the department, no directive officially to destroy destroy files. They archive them. They don't destroy them."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, he's named one Ms. Ady Pacheco? Can you tell us what roll you've seen in this particular instance that she plays with these documents which he claims to be authentic documents from the Immigration Department?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"Absolutely none, I don't know why he's singling out the young lady. It is unfair to her. She is an officer in the Nationality Section who receives application, enters that in a book, and passes them on for processing. Why is he singling her out, or anybody for that matter?"

Daniel Ortiz "Can you tell us what the police may be looking for. We gather that you announced on national radio that they've joined the investigations officially."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"I don't know what they are looking for. They have to tell you that."

And while the irregularities with those documents are one thing – another that we've been hearing about for some time is a visa programme. Multiple credible sources have told 7news that up until recently there was a robust semi-official programme to allow elected officials a certain quota of visas that they were permitted to arrange for visitors to the country. These visas would then be arranged, we are told, for a fee. It may sound outlandish but multiple sources have fed us this information over time.

Today when we asked Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse about it, he told us categorically, that there is no such operation:

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you tell us if there any such system?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse
Absolutely none, I don't know where they got that information from. No minister is allowed to sell visas. Nobody in this country is allowed to sell visas. The process of getting a visa is applying to the Department. When you apply to the Department, there is a fee that you pay. The Chinese I think, pays $2,000, Indians pay something else, and other nationals pay another price. You apply there and you get your visa. There are some requirements which you have to make. You must have a legitimate passport. You have to make sure you can pay your stay, and you can pay your way out of the country. Once those criteria are met, you're good to go."

Daniel Ortiz
"So you're saying categorically, that this system does not exist."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"There is no system. There is no system where people come, apply, and have quotas. I don't know where that comes from. What we have done in the Department, in the Ministry so that we don't swamp the Department, is to make sure that we look at the vetting first, to make sure that people who apply meet the requirements. That is standard, before they go there and swamp the director. That is no special system."

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