Repatriation program suspended

The Department of Labor and Immigration has suspended a repatriation program for displaced foreign workers in the Northern Marianas as funds set aside to compensate them have been used by the island government for some 500 illegal Chinese immigrants taking refuge on Tinian.

Mark Zachares, labor and immigration secretary, said yesterday the department will resume the program once expenditures are reimbursed by the U.S. government.

He did not disclose any specific date as to when they will get refunds, but said the White House has assured the Commonwealth of the reimbursement of all expenses resulting from CNMI’s handling of the immigration crisis.

Although DOLI is still finalizing actual costs, Zachares estimated that the department has spent between $400,000 to half a million dollars since April 17 when the first boatload of illegal immigrants from China arrived on Tinian.

The island government has accepted at least 480 Chinese nationals for the past few weeks who were caught by US Coast Guard while attempting to enter Guam illegally aboard fishing boats.

Local funds allocated for the illegals: Because this entails huge expenditures, including overtime pay for CNMI personnel stationed on the Tinian camps, DOLI has reprogrammed some of its funds for its operations there.

Most of the money have been taken out from the deportation fund that the department has set aside for the repatriation program, according to Zachares.

“It’s kind of slowing down right now because we’re working on the Tinian operations and we’re using our local funding… from the deportation fund,” he told reporters in an interview.

Signed into Public Law 11-66 last February, the program provides up to $3,000 in compensation to nonresident workers awaiting awarded monetary damages from companies which have closed down without paying their back wages.

More than 50 people, most of them Filipinos, Bangladeshis and Chinese, have so far gone back to their countries under this voluntary program which had been prompted by concerns from U.S. lawmakers on the growing number of displaced guest workers in the Commonwealth.

At least $150,000 have also been spent by the government since the first group of repatriates left the island last March. The funds were largely drawn up from revenues collected by DOLI under the Deportation Fund set up last year by the CNMI.

“A lot of that money was dedicated to the repatriation efforts,” Zachares explained. “However, because of the emergency situation, we had to reprogram and get that money diverted over to make this operations on Tinian successful.”

Be he assured repatriation will continue “once we get the reimbursements.”

No new illegals: Meanwhile, the DOLI chief said he does not expect new arrivals of illegals to Tinian within the next few weeks which may help ease situation on the island.

“It’s encouraging because it’s been over a week now since the last boat came. That’s very encouraging sign that maybe the message is getting back to … China that this may not be the route to take,” he said.

Four boats, believed to be heading to Guam, have so far been taken by the Coast Guard from international waters near the U.S. territory to Tinian where they are housed in two makeshift tents hastily set up by federal authorities.

Although he has been monitoring the situation, Zachares said he was not privy to talks between Washington and Beijing on the possible repatriation of these illegals.

Negotiations have been stalled by the NATO’s bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade which angered Beijing and forced temporary cut-off of diplomatic communication between the two countries.