President Johnson Toribiong announced yesterday that undocumented workers need not be afraid of coming forward as they will be given time to sort out their papers without being subjected to fines or prosecution.
Toribiong said he will give an amnesty of at least six months or an option of voluntarily leaving the country within the prescribed period.
Next month, Palau is requiring all foreigners working and staying in Palau for more than six months to register.
The president said the registration is a monitoring system in order to track down the number of foreigners in Palau. He clarified that it is not a revenue-generating scheme.
Sen. Surangel Whipps in an interview said that it is not the public’s fault if the Division of Labor and Bureau of Immigration can’t reconcile their discrepancies in the number of foreign workers.
“Why is there a need to re-register, if they can’t get their data together, is that the public’s fault?” Whipps stated.
He said that the foreign workers are already burdened with fees such as work permits.
The fee for the registration is $25 and the registration schedule is open for the whole month of August starting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Earlier Immigration Director Jenkins Mariur said that anyone who fails to register will pay five dollars fine per day.
He also warned those overstaying workers that if they failed to come up and register, the immigration would double their fines.
However the president said there will be no fines for the overstaying workers and instead will be eligible for an amnesty.
The aim of the registration is to prevent overstaying and undocumented foreigners and will also address the discrepancy in the number of foreign workers.
Members of diplomatic mission, formally recognized by the Ministry of State and their families, citizens of United States, Federated State of Micronesia and Republic of the Marshall Islands are exempted from the registration. Also tourists and those aliens present in Palau at any time during the first seven calendar days of August and who will depart before September 1 are exempted.
Earlier records showed that there are over 100 undocumented workers in Palau.
There are 162 expired permits discovered as a result of the reconciliation of the Bureau of Immigration and Division of Labor data.
These expired permits are from workers from Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Federated States of Micronesia, Japan, Korea and Solomon Islands.
The labor handles foreign worker visas, while Immigration handles worker permits change to spouses, dependent, missionary, special or government employee permits.
