‘American dream’ becomes a nightmare for Chinese workers left stranded in Saipan
Dozens of men say they cannot afford to leave the US commonwealth island until they are paid the wages they are owed
Liu Guoxin, a 45-year-old construction worker from central China, will be spending New Year’s Eve in Saipan, a commonwealth of the United States in the western Pacific. He would rather be back home with his wife and two children, but he cannot afford to leave until he is paid the wages he says he is owed.
In 2016, Liu responded to an advertisement by a recruiter in his hometown of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. The advert offered a monthly salary of at least US$2,300, free accommodation with just three or four men to a room, and even the possibility of a US green card.
Despite being asked to pay US$6,250 as a recruitment fee – half of which came from his relatives and the rest from a loan shark – Liu thought it sounded like the chance of a lifetime and signed up.
On December 14, 2016 he landed in Saipan, picked up his on-arrival tourist visa and began his pursuit of the American dream.
Liu’s employer was an engineering company based in eastern China that specialises in curtain walls for buildings. His job was to help put together the metal frames used to hold the huge glass panels on the outside of a US$3.1 billion casino and hotel development owned by Hong Kong-based Imperial Pacific International.
But what started as a dream, soon became a nightmare.