16 Jan 2014

American Samoa launches immigration amnesty programme

4:27 pm on 16 January 2014

American Samoa's immigration amnesty programme was officially launched at today's cabinet meeting.

The committee which developed the policies for the programme expects that thousands of undocumented individuals will register.

Under the program the administration will be seeking Fono approval to expand the quota limits for foreign nationals residing in the territory for this fiscal year.

The Assistant Attorney General Vincent Kruse says the data from the registration will be used for drafting an amnesty

legislation that will be submitted to the Fono.

He says only those who entered American Samoa before June 30 the 2013 are qualified under the amnesty programme.

"We are not asking for a blank cheque to open this up to anyone and everyone, this is specifically to cover the people here who are already living in the Territory but for one reason or another are not probably documented and living in accordance with local laws."

Vincent Kruse says registration will start on February the 18th and end March the 14th

The last amnesty programme was in 1998 and some 3,000 undocumented foreign nationals participated.