Copyright 7newsbelize
Courtenay, who is the leader of government business, told us that he believes the ratification will get majority senate support - after a meeting with the social partner senators earlier this week: Jules Vasquez: "Do you expect that you will have the numbers to pass it with the support of the social partners?" Eamon Courtenay, Leader of Government Business "I suspect so, there was a very helpful meeting held on Monday of the committee of the whole Senate where the agreement was discussed in detail. And we had the attorney general and Ambassador Aisha Borland answering questions and explaining the provisions to senators. And I think at least it was an opportunity for any concerns that people had to be brought up in the matters that they needed clarification on. There was no vote or any indication of how people would vote, whether they supported it or not. It was an information sharing opportunity. But I suspect that at the end of the day, the Senate will approve and authorize the ratification of the agreement. I think it's worthwhile to mention that even though the agreement, let's say the Senate were to approve the ratification of the agreement, the agreement won't come into force immediately because there has to be an amendment to the Refugees Act in order to domesticate the agreement and to put in place some of the protections that are required so to use the word of the Attorney General, approval of the agreement is just a trigger to move to that second stage, where the Refugees Act would have to be amended. And I believe some of the safeguards that senators may have would then be included in the Refugees Act, as well as operating procedures, which are that are being negotiated at the moment."
