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SGMA donates to illegal Chinese immigrants
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Posted on Apr 30 1999
The Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association loaded onto the government’s Challenger vessel enough shirts, shoes, pants and underwear to cloth the approximately 300 Chinese illegal immigrants on Tinian.
In response to a request from the Department of Labor and Immigration, SGMA Executive Director asked SGMA members to provide basic necessities to assist local and federal officials in housing, feeding and clothing the economically impoverished Chinese at the “tent city.”
Nearly 1,000 shirts were immediately contributed by James Lin of the United International Corporation, 300 pairs of shoes were acquired from wholesalers on Saipan, as were approximately 200 pairs of pants and 400 pairs of underwear.
SGMA purchased the goods from local businesses for immediate delivery to the underclothed Chinese nationals.
Mary Lin offered clothing from Pena House to be delivered on the second shipment to Tinian, while SGMA took responsibility for collecting any additional clothing that businesses could afford to donate, to assist both the CNMI and federal government in supplying needed clothing.
Along similar lines, SGMA came to the local government rescue in 1994 when workers from Hankook Corporation were stranded by their bankrupt employer on Saipan. The SGMA spearheaded a drive and collected contributions from local businesses to repatriate those workers that could not, or would not, find work with another CNMI employer.
