The Samoan Government is trying to find out how a group of Samoans were able to depart for New Zealand for seasonal work, despite the temporary ban on the regional seasonal employer scheme.
Documents including flight itineraries have been obtained by the Samoa Observer showing there was travel to New Zealand.
The itinerary shows 18 seasonal employees left the country on Sunday, January 15 while the scheme was halted.
Samoa's Cabinet had put a temporary stop to the deployment of seasonal workers for this month, until Cabinet finalises a policy focusing on the selection of applicants.
According to one of the workers, a senior official with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour was processing their paperwork and travel documents but is not responding to their calls anymore.
Attempts by the newspaper to get comment from the Ministry were unsuccessful.
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