Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Anticipated outcomes at the Fifth Atoa o Samoa Executive Meeting last week noted that ASG has requested StarKist Samoa to start building appropriate accommodations to house the Samoa guest workers in 2024. 

This comes along with StarKist’s request to add 500 additional guest workers from Samoa.

At the meeting, ASG confirmed the approval of 870 Samoan citizens to travel to American Samoa under the seven-day entry permit waiver program since the start of the program to reassess permits to ease intra-Samoa travel from October 2023 up to March this year.  

From October 2023 to April 2024, Samoa recorded 1,371 ‘ok boards’ from US nationals to travel to Samoa without entry permits for a variety of activities. 

The Samoa Observer reported that as of April there are 1,222 guest workers at StarKist Samoa Company with an additional permit approved for 119 Samoans for that month. 

Anticipated outcomes noted that ASG requested StarKist Samoa to start building appropriate accommodations to house the Samoa guest workers in 2024. 

It is also anticipated that there will be a better-defined cooperation in terms of roles and responsibilities for the two governments and StarKist.

Both governments agreed to modify the entry permit for stays up to 10 days. 

(Sources: SN archives & Samoa Observer)