Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino staff still living at the Northern Marianas closed hotel's barracks are facing a humanitarian crisis with power to the complex cut off.
Dynasty casino, Tinian, CNMI. Photo: RNZ / Mark Rabago
A week ago the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation cut the electricity supply because Dynasty had about $US1.3 million dollars of arrears.
The workers had been able to stay on at the hotel but with the power cut off they have had just a few days use from the hotel's own generator.
The former workers, who are still owed money by the collapsed hotel operation, have no jobs or residency status in the CNMI.
The workers, who had been in CNMI on foreign employment immigration visas, had lost that status when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied their renewals nearly two years ago.
They had been allowed to stay under the expectation the Tinian management would resolve the status question but the hotel operator failed late last year.