| Disputes - international | Guatemala persists in its territorial claim to approximately half of Belize, but agrees to the Line of Adjacency to keep Guatemalan squatters out of Belize's forested interior; both countries agreed in April 2012 to hold simultaneous referenda, scheduled for 6 October 2013, to decide whether to refer the dispute to the ICJ for binding resolution, but this vote was suspended indefinitely; Belize and Mexico are working to solve minor border demarcation discrepancies arising from inaccuracies in the 1898 border treaty |
| Illicit drugs | major transshipment point for cocaine; small-scale illicit producer of cannabis, primarily for local consumption; offshore sector money-laundering activity related to narcotics trafficking and other crimes |
| Trafficking in persons | current situation: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and Belizeans abroad; Belizean and foreign women, men, and girls and LGBTI persons, mainly from Central America, are sex trafficked in bars, nightclubs, hotels, and brothels; men, women, and children from Central America, Mexico, and Asia may migrate voluntarily to Belize seeking work and then are subjected to forced labor in restaurants, shops, domestic work, and agriculture; foreign child sex tourists exploit children in tourist areas tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Belize does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities initiated more trafficking investigations, convicted a trafficker, screened for potential trafficking victims during labor inspections, and continued to implement a 2018-2020 national anti-trafficking action plan; anti-trafficking training was provided to the anti-trafficking police unit, immigration officers, prosecutors, judges, prison officials, and social workers; however, the government did not initiate any new trafficking prosecutions and continued to apply victim identification procedures inconsistently; corruption and official complicity in trafficking remained concerns, but no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees were reported (2020) |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
