Dozens of migrants stood their ground outside the Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen on Sunday night and refused to leave for a new shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
Cops had mobilized around the hotel around 10 p.m. as more than 50 migrants were standing outside with activists assisting with food, water and translations.
Single men were supposed to be brought to the new shelter over the weekend that would provide the same services they’ve been receiving, city officials said.
At one point, a city bus arrived and a small number of migrants jumped on, though the vast majority stayed put in front of the hotel on West 57th Street. Activists argued the migrants were being forced out of the hotel.
One Manhattan activist told The Post the men outside were staying at the hotel and were prepared to stay outside overnight. Some were moved to the new shelter earlier this weekend, but opted to return to the Manhattan site, she said.
“They feel that it’s not livable,” said Valerie, who declined to give her last name but said she was part of a mutual aid coalition helping migrants.
“The hotel won’t let them in so they’re planning to sleep here,” Valerie added.
A rep for Mayor Eric Adams said the city began shuttling single adult men from the Watson Hotel to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in order to transition the Watson 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.”
More than a dozen cops were originally stationed at the Watson for crowd control, police said, though a scaled-back number of officers were still there around midnight as some migrants were still out front the hotel.
Adams announced last week that the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal would be a new migrant mega-shelter for 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 the busload last year.
