This was the suggestion of human rights advocate Wendy Doromal.
The trust fund is trying to distribute $600,000 to former garment workers and plans to donate to charity any leftover funds.
Doromal, a former Rota teacher, said the funds can also be used to repatriate former garment workers and their families who want to return to their homeland.
After the distribution of the money, the remaining funds should be set aside for the college scholarships of children of the former garment workers, she added.
But the trust fund should, first of all, ensure that former garment workers with legitimate claims to the money will receive their share.
Trust fund chairman and former Judge Timothy H. Bellas said they are now receiving requests from former garment workers who want to be repatriated.
Bellas said he has asked the CNMI Labor Department if there are repatriation funds from the employers or the bonding companies.
Doromal said the trust fund could be used to pay workers with unpaid judgments, or hire attorneys so they could file cases in court to collect unpaid judgments.
“I would hope that leftover funds would be used specifically to benefit the former garment workers and their families,” she added.
Bellas said he and the co-trustees, former Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Guy and former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, will meet on Sept. 25 to review the applications from the former garment workers.
