German tourists allege scam by local officials on San Pedro
Aaron Humes, Amandala | Matti Ruben and Linda Bade, backpackers from Germany, spent only two days in Belize, from August 3 to 5, 2010, after arriving via private boat from Mexico. However, allegations they have made of a scam allegedly being run by officials in the Immigration and Customs Departments on San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, may leave Belize with a seriously wounded reputation.
According to proprietor of Pedro’s Hotel and Inn in San Pedro, Peter Lawrence, the couple arrived around lunchtime on the 3rd of August asking, “How expensive is it to visit Belize?”
After the couple told him that they had had to pay $120 to enter the country – $80 to Immigration and $40 to Customs – Lawrence said he contacted Immigration officials who told him that since the couple had arrived during lunchtime, they would have to pay. When Lawrence pointed out that the couple could have waited until after lunch and that since the doors were open, there was no clear indication that it was lunchtime, the official he was speaking with told him that it was “none of his business.”
Ruben and Bade told the San Pedro Sun’s Dennis Craft (Lawrence told us he contacted the island newspaper after his fruitless call to Immigration) that they had chartered a boat in Xcalak, Mexico, called the “Yirien”, en route to San Pedro.
On their arrival, the captain, identified in the couple’s formal report to the BTB (as seen by Amandala) as Gabrino Patto, took them to the Immigration office, the door of which was closed. They then went to the Customs office next door, where they apparently met the Immigration official on duty, who took them back across to the Immigration office.
In the office, the Immigration officer, a woman, demanded US$40 (BZ$80) for a “boarding fee.” The couple said they did not have US dollars, but she would not accept their Mexican pesos and told them in response to their questions that they would have to pay a similar amount next door at Customs.
The couple went to the Scotia Bank ATM, withdrew $300, and paid the money, but was not given a receipt, as according to the Immigration officer, it “was not necessary.”
Next door at Customs, they found their boat captain talking to the Customs official, who asked them for US$20, and when they said they had no US currency, asked for the equivalent in Belize dollars. They gave her a BZ$50 bill and got their change, but again, no receipt, with the same explanation as that given by the Immigration officer.
(According to the BTB report, the Immigration official changed the money for the Customs official with money stuffed in her bra, and the Customs official did not even take a look at their declarations filed in Mexico and Belize.)
After their conversation with Lawrence, the couple and Craft returned to the office, seeking an explanation. At Customs, speaking with the same official they had dealt with earlier, they were told that “we only deal with the boat captain,” and were then given a pre-prepared receipt with the name of the boat.
After the couple insisted on a receipt, they were given a copy of the one in the official’s books. The official, according to Ruben and Bade, repeatedly changed her explanation for taking their money, starting with the claim that the money was a “boarding fee” and then claiming that it was to “pay for her overtime,” as she processed their paperwork during her lunch break.
It was the same story at Immigration, where they were given a prepared receipt with the name of the captain and an amount of $40 rather than the $80 they had paid. This is the couple’s explanation of what happened next, slightly edited:
“So we refused this receipt and asked for an explanation. First almost no answer was given and then we were told to talk to the boss of [I]mmigration. He told us that we were charged instead of the captain and usually the captain has to pay the ‘boarding fee’. Unfortunately, he could not show us a fee list, where this so-called ‘boarding fee’ is written down.
“When we came out of the office of the boss, the Immigration lady awaited us with a US$20 bill and again the receipt from before. Her offer was like: ‘Take this or nothing!’ We said we don’t gamble about fees and Matti still wanted to see the fee list.
“Matti went back to the office of the boss and asked for the fee list and a telephone number where you can get information about immigration processes. Neither was given to him. Instead, there was the explanation why we should get back US$20. The official ‘boarding fee’ is BZ$40 and that we got charged BZ$80 was a mistake.
“Matti asked whether this is an internal problem of the immigration office and that was confirmed by the boss. The boss said something about firing people and when the captain comes back to San Pedro during the time we will be here, he will send him to ‘Pedro’s Inn’ and will make him [give] us our money back. “Outside, Linda and Dennis Craft were talking to the woman who was in charge before and another officer, and were also told about the ‘boarding fee’.
“While Linda was waiting in the front room of the immigration office with Dennis, the lady came up with a different explanation of the BZ$80. If we would have come after the lunch break, we wouldn’t have paid anything. So she was somehow admitting that there exists no such ‘boarding fee’ in the immigration office. “As we saw that this discussion led nowhere, we left the office with both receipts and the US$20.”
The problem with the explanations is that while there are standard departure fees for visitors by air, land and sea, Belize does not charge fees of entry. Or do we? Amandala was not able to reach either Customs or Immigration officials in San Pedro this evening, and we understand that Director of Immigration Gareth Murillo will not be in office all this week.
However, Efrain Phillips, Customs Examiner I and officer in charge of Customs and Excise in San Pedro, told the San Pedro Sun that it is “general knowledge” that vessels entering Belize from international waters must be cleared by Customs, Immigration and the Health Department, and that the fee charged to the tourists by Customs is what is known as a “docking fee” in San Pedro and a “transportation fee” at other ports of entry. San Pedro, one of Belize’s main ports of entry, does not have a specifically designated area for arriving vessels to dock, and officers can clear them, meaning that, according to Phillips, officers must go out to meet the vessels.
Phillips admitted that the fee may vary according to agency and that captains of vessels are allowed to come to the office to do the paperwork, rather than the officials coming down to meet them. However, he insisted to Craft that the fee charged to the tourists in this case rightly should have been charged to Patto, as captain, and that a receipt should be issued, but is not necessary. He denied wrongdoing on the part of his officer and maintained that the fee should have been an issue between Patto and the couple.
The Belize Tourism Board has been tasked to look into the matter, and according to Tourism Minister and Belize Rural South area representative Hon. Manuel Heredia, Jr., Director Murillo at Immigration has been tasked to look into the matter as well. The Minister suggested that signs at each port of entry advertising charges for tourists will be considered. Speaking with Amandala this evening by telephone, Minister Heredia said that he has been made aware of “irregularities,” not only in Customs and Immigration, but also with the Port Authority in San Pedro Town, concerning tourists and Belizeans coming in from Xcalak.
Regarding this matter, the Minister told us he was expecting a report “by next week” on the Germans’ allegations, and said that the officers involved would be asked to give their accounts of what happened in writing.
“I intend to bring this to the attention of the Minister responsible for Immigration (Defense Minister Carlos Perdomo) and to the Prime Minister as well, as he is in charge of Customs. I am totally against those types of activities happening, even when it is a different Ministry, in my constituency,” the Minister said, adding that disciplinary action was possible as a signal “that we are serious about rooting out irregularities.” Unfortunately, the experience has left a rather sour taste in the mouths of Ruben and Bade, and as both Craft and Lawrence note, a black eye for Belizean tourism.
Amandala has received reliable information suggesting that this is a regular occurrence at local tourism destinations, particularly Placencia. Peter Verralls, a sailor cruising the seas between Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala for the last two years, recently wrote of the experiences of a friend he caught up with in Guatemala on a local online forum.
According to Verralls, a friend from the U.S. he identified only as “Sterling,” was en route to a U.S. veterans’ hospital in Florida, bypassing Belize because of alleged official corruption and thievery. But near the Turneffe Atolls, the boat’s jib broke, and the crew came to Belize City on June 1 to try to catch a flight to the U.S. to make the hospital appointment. According to Sterling’s account to Verralls, local Immigration officials refused to book him and his crew in, due to an alleged violation of international law. After an argument, they relented, only for the local Port Authority to visit the next day and demand that he pay US$1,000 for crossing local shipping channels without a local pilot.
Sterling again refused and the Authority impounded the boat and allegedly took away $377 following a search before letting him go. Sterling was forced to return to Guatemala, penniless.
Verralls also wrote of an “overtime scam” that sounds remarkably close to Ruben and Bade’s experience, except that it covers tourists arriving in Belize late or leaving early.
He sums up by saying of Belize’s treatment of tourists: “If this is the way we welcome tourists, there is no way they will come back. They tell their friends, who tell others, they write their blogs that get read internationally. It does Belize so much harm. Even if you were thinking of getting on a cruise ship, it would make you choose another route. You’d never let your son or daughter back pack there, etc, etc. Hey, you want to retire to Belize to sail, forget it.
Honeymoon, it’s much nicer in Playa, cheaper too. You have to go through Belize City to get to San Pedro – you gotta be joking. You know they speak English in Roatan…The stories abound. Just so much damage to Belize. Belize has no monopoly of reefs, rain forests or Mayan ruins. There is competition out there. Just really sad. A country that time and time again just screws itself…”
Editors Note: It is nearly three weeks BTB investigated the story of the young German couple who were backpacking their way through Central America and were charged a total of $120bzd, by customs and the Immigration Dept. to enter Belize. The report was compiled by Mr. Noel Escalante and he passed it on to Mr. Lloyd Enriquez and Mr. Michael Singh who in turn informed the minister of Tourism the Rt. Hon Manuel Heredia.
The Minister informed his staff that he would take this up with the Ministers of Immigration and Customs, and then to the cabinet. Inquiries have been made to find out what has or is happening over this matter. Lloyd Enriquez stated “that it is now a matter of government protocol,and is out of mine and the BTB’s hands,and with government everything takes a long time.”
In todays economic climate anyone, whether it is a backpacker or multimillionaire should be greeted with welcoming smiles, and thanked for visiting our country rather than given an attitude give us your money now and we really do not care if you stay or not. We wonder how many people this young couple talked to during their trip around Central America. Remember people always remember bad news and always pass it on to others. How many people whether they arrive on private planes, large boats to walking across borders (legally) have been overcharged, treated badly and have stopped future guests by their views visiting this country?
Irregularities? Bribes! Corruption! Male Bovine Excrement! This is just what we need. I spend so much time extolling Belize to Americans and Europeans and then things like this happen. This should be the subject of an inquiry it should be the cause of an arrest. Unbelievable really and the more I hear of it the more I despair for this beautiful country and its generally beautiful people.
Sorry my post should have read ‘should not be the subject of an inquiry but the cause of an arrest”.
Typical of the corruption in Belize. No one seems to be in charge of anything. The more I hear of this type of thing, the less I want to visit or invest there. It’s sad since it isn’t typical of the true Belizeans.