Dozens of migrants stood their ground outside The Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen Sunday night and refused to leave for a new shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
Cops had mobilized around the hotel at around 10 p.m. as more than 50 migrants were standing outside with activists assisting with food and translations.
At one point, a city bus arrived and a small number of migrants jumped on with the vast majority staying put in front of the hotel on West 57th Street. Activists argued the migrants were being forced out of the hotel.
Police said the migrants dispersed shortly after. No arrests were made.
A rep for Mayor Adams said the city began shuttling single adult men from The Watson to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to transition the Watson Hotel to house migrant families.
“More than 42,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since last spring and we continue to surpass our moral obligations as we provide asylum seekers with shelter, food, health care, education, and a host of other services,” City Hall spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement.
“The facilities at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will provide the same services as every other humanitarian relief center in the city, and the scheduled relocations to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal this weekend took place as planned. We remain in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments.”
The NYPD said around 10:30 p.m. they had no reason to be there any longer. More than a dozen cops were stationed there for crowd control, police said.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced last week Brooklyn Cruise Terminal would be a new mega-migrant shelter for up to as many as 1,000 single adult men. It’s the fifth Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center opened in the Big Apple since migrants began coming by busloads last year.
