Free plane tickets to other places in the United States. This is what the Mayor’s Office is offering. NY to migrants arriving in the city who want to leave it voluntarily, in an attempt to decongest the city in the face of an incessant flow of arrivals that since the spring of 2022 has brought 133,400 people to the Big Apple, according to municipal figures cited by Efe.

The Mayor’s Office has justified this measure by indicating that, despite having opened more than 210 emergency shelters, they no longer have space. “Simply we have run out of room“, a municipal spokesperson told the aforementioned agency. “As there are no signs of decompression in the immediate future, we have established a center [para que elijan] relocation,” he said.

“The city is going to redouble its efforts to buy tickets for immigrants and help them take the next step in their journey“added the source, specifying that the “screening center” is located in the Roosevelt Hotela historic hotel converted months ago into a center for immigration operations.

Although the press is prohibited from entering it, the Efe agency has been able to speak with the migrants who crowd at the entrance in search of information. Hector, a Colombian citizen, has been offered a one-way ticket to Denver, but for the moment he has refused: “What have I missed in Denver? I don’t know anyone there“, he asserts. However, he has not completely ruled out the idea, because, he says, “in New York there are many of us for few jobs.”

José Luis, of Ecuadorian origin, tells a similar experience: in his case, They offered him tickets “to Denver, Chicago and Florida”, but he also rejected them, because when he asked if the ticket was accompanied by a job offer he received a refusal. At the door of the Roosevelt Hotel, everyone knows a friend or relative who has been offered a flight, but only those who have relatives in other cities are considering the idea.

This offer of free flights is in addition to what the city already made in February, in this case free bus rides: then, New York had received 45,000 immigrants and several hundred of them – although official figures were never disclosed – went on buses paid for by the New York City Hall to other cities, in some cases to Canada, creating a political problem in the neighboring country. .