Migrants protest being moved from Manhattan hotel
Some migrants refused to board a bus that was moving them from a Manhattan hotel to a new migrant housing facility at the Brooklyn cruise terminal.
NEW YORK – A group of migrants refused to leave a hotel in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood on Sunday.
The Watson Hotel is a mens-only shelter and in a plan announced by Mayor Eric Adams last week, the migrants are supposed to be relocated to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
However, many were refusing to go. Eventually, some boarded the bus to the terminal.
Activists say the migrants are being forced out.
RELATED: NYC to use Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to shelter asylum-seekers
FOX 5 NY spoke to the Mayor's Office, which said in part that the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal provides the same services as every other shelter in the city.
In a statement, Mayor Adams' office stated: ""This weekend, we began the process of moving single adults males form the Watson Hotel to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, as we transition the hotel to meet the large number of asylum seeking families with children. 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. 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 was planned. We remain in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments."
The city has had to absorb more than 42,000 migrants that have been bussed from Texas since the spring.