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Feds give $100K for displaced workers
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Posted on Jun 27 2005
The Department of the Interior has granted the CNMI government a $100,000 grant to house and feed displaced nonresident workers.
The grant forms part of a $600,000 federal assistance package that was signed yesterday by Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Insular Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen at the Governor’s Office.
The bulk of the federal grant—$500,000—will be used to continue to improve the CNMI’s labor and immigration system.
Cohen said that the federal government decided to provide the $100,000 emergency fund to help the displaced garment workers in the CNMI, in view of the worldwide lifting of trade quotas this year.
The lifting of quotas has so far resulted in the closure of three garment factories and downsizing of operations of others.
“This fund is for relief assistance for displaced workers, to help address their emergency needs for food and shelter,” said Cohen.
He said the Attorney General Office will be tasked to develop a system on how to disburse the fund.
Attorney General Pamela Brown said her office will be working with agencies such as the Labor Ombudsman and the Department of Labor in drafting a guideline on relief assistance. She said a system would be in place in two to three weeks.
Brown said the emergency fund would not be limited to garment workers only but to all displaced guest workers.
Brown said that about 200 displaced garment workers have been repatriated following the closure and downsizing within the garment sector.
He said about 150 workers more are set to leave the CNMI soon.
Meantime, the government would use the remaining $500,000 for the salary and compensation of investigators and lawyers at the Labor Department and the Division of Immigration.
Last year, the government received a $720,000 funding for the automation of the immigration and labor and immigration information systems.
