DOLI: Number of guest workers drop

The CNMI government has carried out reforms to reduce the number of overstaying aliens and curb the abuse of guest workers in Northern Marianas, according to Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark D. Zachares.

In a letter to U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, chairman of the Resources Committee, DOLI chief debunked claims by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service General Counsel Bo Cooper that majority of the nonresident workers are “temporarily” employed under indentured contracts.

Zachares dismissed the statement of the INS representative during the hearing conducted by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that there are 7,000 undocumented aliens residing in the Commonwealth.

According to Zachares, a recent survey on the composition of labor force in the CNMI showed that there are currently 35,755 non-U.S. citizens working on the island. However, the figure includes citizens from the Freely Associated States, spouses of U.S. citizens, U.S. resident card holders, illegal aliens (as identified under the Limited Immunity Program) and other nonresident permit holders such as students and investors/business permit holders.

In 1997, the registered alien worker population in the CNMI was 34,111. Since March 1998, when the moratorium law was passed, the number of guest worker permits issued totaled 25,306, or a decline of 26 percent compared to the previous year.

The number of guest workers include the over 3,000 illegal aliens who registered and found jobs under the Limited Immunity Program of the CNMI. The program provided mobility to guest workers with midterm and after contract transfer relief, he added.

In 1998, there were 1,417 midterm contract transfers and 1,613 after contract transfers granted. Since enactment of the law, over 3,000 guest workers availed of transfer relief.

“This, in itself, has greatly reduced instances of exploitation and abuse of our guest workers and further refutes the perception that CNMI guest workers are mere indentured servants,” said Zachares.

A limited number of companies have also been granted exemptions since 1998 such as Hard Rock Cafe and Warner Bros. A request made by the Federal Ombudsman to hire guest workers to staff her office was denied since it would constitute a violation of the CNMI law prohibiting the hiring of guest workers for government positions.

But when the limited immunity law was enacted, some 3,000 aliens registered to apply for valid work permits within the six months period. To date, 1,246 have obtained one-year contracts with 295 pending. A total of 2,125 have been granted three-month work permits while seeking a one-year contract employment.

The LIP, Zachares said, provided a means for the CNMI to obtain an accurate estimate of its illegal alien population. There have been largely inflated estimates of the illegal alien numbers that has caused great concern to the CNMI officials, he pointed out.

“Figures form the Limited Immunity Program illustrate that our prior estimates were accurate. We are confident in our figures since every effort was made to build trust to encourage illegal aliens to register,” Zachares said.

Such efforts include working with the Philippine Consulate, the Chinese Economic Development Association, the Saipan Garment Manufacturing Association, and religious and outreach organizations.

In his testimony, Cooper alluded to several situations in which the CNMI has allegedly intruded into the responsibility of the U.S. government as stated in the Covenant.

The two Memoranda of Understanding negotiated by the previous administration with China and the Philippines dealt with the enhanced efforts to protect the rights of their workers in the Northern Marianas. These MOUs, prior to their implementation, were reviewed and approved by the State Department.

Zachares noted that in 1998, the Philippine Consulate issued a statement praising the good working conditions of Filipino workers here and the effective coordination between the Consulate and the local government.

Other countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have had workers exploited by unscrupulous recruiters within their own countries. A delegation composed of representatives from the CNMI government, with the help of the State Department, visited Bangladesh and Nepal and found out that there were no internal safeguards
within these countries to ensure that similar recruiting schemes would not be repeated.

As a result, importation of workers from “high risk” countries were banned by the CNMI government. A public law was enacted to assist workers who have been exploited and abandoned. Over 163 individuals have received compensation/travel money to return home since the governor signed the legislation.

Zachares also refuted statements that the Labor and Immigration Identification and Document System (LIIDS) has remained dormant and is far from reality.

Currently, he said the department is in its final phase of identifying and reviewing vendors to implement a working system that will be able to meet the CNMI’s unique needs.

In April 1998, the administration engaged an on-site vendor that delivered everything that was asked for by DOLI except the installation of newly procured computer equipment. Completion of the contract amounting to $452,873 was carried out on May 1, 1999 with the installation of the new computer servers for the LIIDS infrastructure upgrade to accommodate the proposed future Project Plan (Arrival and Departure module).

The recent computer infrastructure installation and upgrade of LIIDS addressed the Y2K problem on the hardware side of the system. On the software side, the Y2K issue was resolved when LIIDS application software was upgraded.

Zachares said the working system will be able to run on the newly upgrade LIIDS infrastructure and has the capability to integrate with the existing LIIDS database of all alien contract workers and other immigration status card holders allowed to stay in the CNMI.