{"id":337082,"date":"2021-01-21T06:08:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T20:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=337082"},"modified":"2021-01-21T06:08:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T20:08:52","slug":"hold-ipi-completely-responsible-for-humanitarian-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hold-ipi-completely-responsible-for-humanitarian-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold IPI \u2018completely responsible\u2019 for the humanitarian crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Commonwealth Casino Commission board chair Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, center, presides over their monthly board meeting at the CCC conference room at Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai yesterday. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) urged the Commonwealth Casino Commission yesterday to work with the Legislature to make it a top priority to resolve what is being described as a \u201chumanitarian crisis\u201d besetting the stranded foreign workers of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC.<\/p>\n

Speaking during the public comments portion of the CCC board meeting at the CCC conference room at Springs Plaza, Propst, who chairs the House Committee on Gaming, asked CCC to hold IPI \u201ccompletely responsible\u201d for the situation of the stranded guest workers, with whom he and other lawmakers have met and had extensive conversations with.<\/p>\n

He said the workers want to go home, but they\u2019re reluctant because they haven\u2019t been paid what they are owed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is heartbreaking. And look no further than previous employees of IPI who left in good faith last September and October, who believed that they would be paid, that the money would be wired,\u201d Propst said. He said he met with them before they left, they talked about it, and stayed in contact. What Propst has learned, though, is that not one of them has gotten paid yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo these current workers who want to go home realize that, if they leave, they won\u2019t receive a penny. That\u2019s criminal. It\u2019s inhumane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker said these are not slaves as they are workers who provided the work, and were promised fair wages, and they deserve it.<\/p>\n

Propst reiterated that the Turkish workers that they met a couple of days ago have work visas that are expiring on Jan. 30. He said the Turkish workers are extremely worried because if they are going to overstay and be deemed illegal, their chances of returning to any U.S. jurisdiction would become extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them are eating one meal a day just to\u2026survive. We\u2019re better than this,\u201d said Propst, adding that the most beautiful thing that they are seeing right now is the community\u2019s outpouring of support for these workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike us as residents here, they don\u2019t have family that they can just move to\u2014mom and dad or cousins or aunties and uncles. So they rely on the goodness, the love of this community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Propst said, the responsibility belongs to IPI. He said the fact that these workers have had no electricity and their water supply had been shut off is inhumane. \u201cWe cannot allow this in our Commonwealth. This is putting a stain on our reputation as being a loving and caring, compassionate people. I will not stand for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Propst said IPI should take care of these workers, pay them what they are owed, and allow them to return to their homes to their loved ones. \u201cNothing is more important at this point. Because\u2026we are the caretakers. And this is a crisis that we need to address as soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) urged the Commonwealth Casino Commission yesterday to work with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":337083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}