Last week Wednesday you saw Immigration CEO Edmund Zuniga take the seat at the Senate Hearings. His testimony was mostly about administrative changes that have been implemented to prevent any form of corruption or shady dealings in the department. Well today it was just as straightforward or maybe even more so when Labor Commissioner Ivan Williams and Deputy Registrar of the Vital Statistics Unit Patricia Hinkson were called in. We start off with Williams as he outlines the basic role of the labor commission as it relates to work permits and how it connects to the Immigration department.
Ivan Williams, Labor Commissioner
"I would like to correct that the labor department does not issue work permits, the labor department approves work permits, work permits are issued by the Director of Immigration and Nationality."
"You apply to the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Labor does it's labor market system to determine whether such a person is required for the purposes of work where Belizeans are not available or the requisite skills and issues a voucher to the director which says this is the person approved for the work permit but the issuance is done by the director in other words if anything is wrong or for any reasons the work permit may not be issued by the director."
"That is the reason why I believe the law creates a dual responsibility between Ministry of labor and the department of immigration."
"The application when it reaches the office, an officer of the labor department, the first thing that is required under the operating procedure for the staff is to check to make sure the person has legal status in Belize. That is obtained by viewing the passport to see if the person has an entry stamp an updated stamp."
"And you have to be in the country to apply for a work permit it is not something you can apply overseas. There has to be a police record in other words either from your country where you last reside or if you are here in Belize for more than 6 months a police report is part of the requirement obtained by my officers."
Hon. Elena Smith
"Is there anything in the policy where the officers or the committee then that they are required to check that for example if I say I am applying for a work permit to work at whether it is a Chinese store or restaurant that anybody would be required to check to see if that establishment needs additional employees or if it is open any at all, is that a apart of the policy that must be done?"
Ivan Williams
"Yes when the application reaches the committee like I said the committee can do one of three things, it can either approve if they are satisfied or they can pend it and in that case say why there are pending it and ask for an inspection to be conducted by another officer or somebody to see whether in fact what is presented because for the most part the committee would be looking at the documentation."
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