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200 workers repatriated
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Posted on Apr 19 2005
Two hundred displaced garment workers have been repatriated since middle of last month, according to the government. At the same time, the purchase of return tickets for 60 more individuals are waiting for approval at the Department of Finance.
Finance Secretary Fermin M. Atalig said the Attorney General’s Office has a pending request for $40,000 for the tickets of these 60 individuals.
“They are asking my office to expedite the release of funds. We’re on it,” said Atalig.
Earlier, press secretary Peter A. Callaghan said that the government has arranged with a travel company, Century Travel Agency Inc., to bring home the displaced Chinese workers through chartered flights.
The government pays $300 for one-way ticket to China.
Century Travel and Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino jointly shoulder the cost for chartered flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou twice weekly for each destination.
Based on its arrangement with the government, Century Travel would also facilitate the travel of the workers to their final destinations once they arrive in China.
Callaghan said the AGO uses the Deportation Fund to repatriate the workers. The fund has some $100,000.
Atalig said the government paid for the repatriation tickets of about half of the repatriated workers. The fare of other workers was shouldered by their respective employers.
The government began sending home the displaced workers last March 17. This came about after Saipan-based garment factories began to downsize their workforce and operations due to the worldwide lifting of trade quotas in January this year.
Authorities said that about 1,500 nonresident workers lost their jobs since January. A small portion of them have found other jobs on the island, others have pending labor complaints, and some are waiting for their repatriation tickets.
