Saturday, August 08, 2015. BMG: Ruth Castillo, a naturalized Belizean originally from Honduras, has for the past year been unable to get the Immigration Department to renew her expired Belizean passport because she does not have a verified birth or naturalization certificate.
The 46 year old told Amandala in this week’s issue that she has been living here for all but three months of her life, having been brought here by her mother from Honduras in the year of Belize’s independence from the United Kingdom – 1981. In fact, she has never been back to Honduras.
The mother of eight was naturalized by her late mother in 1981 – both parents are now dead.
The Immigration Department, however, has told her she would have to provide them with her nationality certificate to have the passport renewed.
Castillo told Amandala that is almost an impossible task for her, since her mother was the one who had dealt with the filing of her papers when she was a child.
Immigration officers advised her to visit the Honduran embassy for assistance, without success.