Population figures
Total country population
416,656
Forcibly displaced population
Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate):
181
Asylum-seekers:
1,584
IDPs (of concern to UNHCR):
0
Other people in need of international protection:
0
Other
Statelessness persons
0
Host community
0
Others of concern to UNHCR
8,808
Country context
Belize is situated on the northeastern coast of Central America, flanked to the north and west by Mexico and to the south and east by Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea.
Domestic legislation provides for the recognition and protection of persons fleeing persecution under a statutory framework that gives effect to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. A Refugees Act, originally enacted in 1991 and subsequently revised, establishes the criteria and procedures for status determination in line with international standards . Further accession to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons in 2006 and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2015 reinforced Belize’s commitment to addressing statelessness through its domestic legal order.
...Procedures for refugee status determination have been the subject of ongoing refinement. Recent reviews have recommended the removal of application deadlines to ensure timely access to international protection mechanisms. A technical working group has been convened to undertake a comprehensive legal review of the Refugees Act, signaling an intent to align domestic procedures with evolving norms. Standard operating procedures for reception, referral and status determination have been upgraded, with a view to enhancing procedural quality and fairness.
Persons recognized under the statutory framework acquire rights equivalent to permanent residents, including access to lawful employment, family unity, personal identification documents and long-term residence entitlements. These rights are conferred without reference to the activities of any particular implementing body, reflecting their grounding in the domestic legal code.
Belize does not host officially designated refugee camps. Individuals in need of international protection reside primarily in urban and peri-urban areas, integrating alongside host communities. Refugees and asylum-seekers originate chiefly from neighboring Central American States—El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala—and are accommodated through community-based arrangements rather than encampment.
Statelessness in Belize often affects children born to parents unable to transmit nationality or who lack documentation at birth. The Nationality Act has been amended to clarify the grant of citizenship to children born to non-Belizeans who later acquire nationality, thereby reducing risk of statelessness through enhanced transmission provisions. Administrative processes for birth registration and naturalization operate alongside the conventions to address remaining cases of undocumented persons.
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