Mechanisms for Accessing Legal Identity for Migrants in Belize

Everyone has the right to a legal identity recognized before the law. Legal identity is defined as "the basic characteristics of a person's identity, such as name, sex, place and date of birth that are granted through the registration of birth and the subsequent issuance of a birth certificate by a civil registration authority" (United Nations, 2023). These characteristics are not static and change due to different events in a person's life, such as name changes, marriages, changes of nationality, among others. Proof of legal identity also includes identification cards issued by national authorities, passports, residence cards or identification cards for migrants. Such documents are essential for accessing multiple rights and state services, including health care, education, work, regular migration and travel, participation in elections, banking services and full integration into society. However, more than 10 per cent of the world's population lacks proof of legal identity accredited by a competent State authority. The number of people without proof of legal identity in Belize has been estimated at 4.3% for children under five years of age while there are no official estimates for the number of adults without identification documents. 

Access to legal identity is linked to safe, orderly and regular migration. Migrants without proof of legal identity are at risk of being rendered invisible by States, exploitation, statelessness or not being able to participate in regularization, family reunification or voluntary return processes. Migrant rights related to legal identity are not only subject to owning identification documents from their country of origin, but also to having such documents recognized by the authorities and legislation of the destination country for use in regularization processes or access to other types of services. 

This report provides an overview of access to legal identity in Belize. It examines three systems for managing the legal identity of individuals: 1) the national civil registration and identity management system; 2) the system for managing the identity of immigrants; and 3) the system for managing the identity of Belizeans residing abroad. Based on recommendations from IOM’s  Legal Identity Toolkit, it discusses factors related to existing regulations, the institutions in charge of the administration of each system, the way regulations are implemented and the nature of the demand of legal identity services.