Guidelines out for garment workers seeking repatriation

The Office of the Attorney General has established guidelines to be followed by displaced garment workers seeking repatriation tickets back to the country of their origin.

The standard operating procedure for repatriation of nonresident workers, adopted March 31, 2005, will be used to process ticket requests for workers whose employers are unable to send them home.

Under the SOP, a nonresident worker who wants a ticket first needs to fill out an in-take form. Workers can get the form from the Department of Labor, the Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Ombudsman’s Office, the Garment Oversight Board, or the Chinese Economic Development Association.

Workers will need their passport number, passport expiration date, their permit number, permit expiration date, LIIDS number, Social Security number, and the date of their initial entry into the CNMI in order to be able to complete the form. Workers from the People’s Republic of China will need the name of agency that recruited them in China.

Once the in-take form has been completed, it will be forwarded to a designated contact person in the AGO, who will forward it to the Department of Labor for certification of eligibility.

Once the worker is certified eligible for repatriation, the government will determine whether funding is available from the Garment Oversight Board. If the worker is eligible for assistance from the Garment Oversight Board, the worker will be interviewed at the Garment Oversight Board Office, and the worker will be provided an itinerary for their departure flight.

If the worker is not eligible for assistance from the Garment Oversight Board, the Attorney General’s Office will determine whether funds are available from the Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund. When funds are available, the worker will be notified by the AGO of their scheduled departure, depending on flight availability. Prior to departure, the worker will have to sign a form allowing the AGO to collect the cost of the worker’s repatriation from the worker’s employer of record or the employer’s bonding company.

Commonwealth law requires that any employer who uses nonresident workers provide repatriation for that worker to the point of recruitment. Employers are also required to provide proof of a surety bond covering claims for back wages and the cost of the worker’s repatriation. If the employer is insolvent or absent, the bonding company is required to pay back wages and repatriation costs. If neither the employer nor the bonding company is able to pay the wages and repatriation costs, the Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund will cover those costs. The Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund, financed by $25 from every nonresident work permit and renewal permit fee, was extended to repatriation of nonresident workers pursuant to Public Law 11-66. (PR)