Feds send more medical help to Tinian
A new batch of medical personnel from the US Public Health Service arrived last week to handle the medical needs of the illegal Chinese immigrants now temporarily staying on the island-municipality of Tinian.
According to Public Health Secretary Kevin Joe Villagomez, the seven-man medical team will stay here for two weeks and will be replaced by a new batch from the US mainland.
Villagomez has assured the community that the latest batch of Chinese immigrants have been cleared of any communicable disease. He said the department has so far been providing the needed medical supplies but it cannot send its own medical personnel due to shortage of staff.
“We know exactly what’s going on because we communicate with the doctors stationed there. If the patients need to be sent here on Saipan for medical care, we have arranged everything how to handle that. But so far, there has been no outbreak of communicable disease.
Over 300 undocumented Chinese nationals who were caught while attempting to enter Guam illegally are presently staying on a tent city in the Northfield area of Tinian island.
Officials have raised the possibility that the area will be kept as a permanent holding station for illegals until their return to mainland China. Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has earlier said he will work closely with the federal government to make sure that the health of the people are properly taken cared of.
Overcrowding at the immigration holding centers in Hagatna has forced the US immigration and Naturalization Service to divert to Tinian boatloads of Chinese illegals believed to be victims of human smuggling.
Many of these illegals pay as much as $5,000 to be able to enter the neighboring island.
The Chinese illegals have already been declared excluded by the CNMI immigration office and will be sent home soon. CNMI officials may expect more illegal Chinese to be sheltered temporarily here as Tenorio said he will not oppose any future plans to divert to Tinian boats that would be apprehend by US authorities.
