OFWs not allowed to re-enter CNMI without exit notice

SAN ANTONIO, Saipan - Filipino workers and other foreign laborers in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are now required to notify the local Department of Labor about their vacation.

The new policy is required among all guest workers, including those who have work permits in their possession.

Members of the guest worker community, however, lashed at CNMI Labor for not making enough information campaign about the new policy before implementing it on Monday.

Irene Tantiado, president of the Coalition of United Workers (NMI), told GMANews.TV that vacationing guest workers will comply with the emergency regulation “but because of the seriousness of the consequence for non-compliance, I hope they can make proper public announcement."

Tantiado said she received information that a Filipino nurse was not allowed to enter Saipan because the nurse failed to notify Labor about her exit.

Filipino workers who went on vacation before the CNMI Department of Labor implemented the policy are also worried that Continental Micronesia or Northwest Airlines will not allow them to board the plane from the Philippines to reenter Saipan.

Saipan, the capital of the CNMI, is about three hours from Manila. The CNMI is home to about 10,000 documented Filipino workers.

The exit notice form can be downloaded from the CNMI Department of Labor's Web site at www.marianaslabor.net.

After filling up the form, the worker can e-mail, fax or hand carry it to Labor.

The labor department said the monitoring of the number of workers exiting and entering the CNMI complies with the measure recently signed by US President George Bush putting CNMI immigration under federal control.

Days after the immigration measure was signed into law, the CNMI Department of Labor issued the emergency regulations capping the number of foreign workers in the CNMI at 22,417 and requiring guest workers to notify the department prior to exiting the CNMI for vacation purposes.

The cap means that the CNMI government - which opposes federal control of the local immigration - will not allow an increase in the total number of foreign workers who are present in the CNMI effective immediately.

CNMI Labor said guest workers who fail to file a required exit form before departing the CNMI might be precluded from entering the islands. Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV

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