With a total of 2,466 undocumented residents in the territory, Samoa takes the lead with the highest number, 1,643 compared to residents from other countries who have applied for the Lolo administration’s amnesty program to make their immigration status legal.

Second in line are 335 undocumented Filipinos, 315 Tongans, 67 Chinese, 58 Fijians, 11 Vietnamese, six from New Zealand and four from Tuvalu. Also represented are Vanuatu, Indonesia, Australia, as well as Germany, Italy, Korea and Panama. There are also individuals from Peru, Portugal, Taiwan, Micronesia and Costa Rica.

According to the governor’s Legal Counsel and Chairman of the Amnesty Committee, Steven Watson, they are now in the process of going through all the files, both those who were in line before the amnesty program began, and the new registrants, to ensure their files are complete and in order for presentation to the Immigration Board.

“We are also drafting appropriate legislation for submission to the Fono increasing the quotas on a one time basis to obtain approval for referring the registrants to the Immigration Board. We expect to introduce this at the July session.”

Watson in response to Samoa News queries indicated that on the Eastern Side, 201 registered, while the Western District had 1,377 registrants, Central District had 795, and there were 37 from Manu’a.

According to the amnesty registration analysis, of those who registered, there were 2065 adults and 397 children up to 17 years of age. Four of those who registered provided no information on their date of birth.

Watson further told Samoa News the existing backlog before the amnesty program began was about 1,630, but about 340 of those registered for amnesty. However, after removing the duplications, there are some 3,756 to be processed. “As discussed, these numbers remain a bit soft but they are close to, within a handful.”