Because of what some thought were promises of a work visa or green card, provided they appeared, about 1,300 Africans gathered outside New York City Hall on Tuesday.
The New York Post said that only 250 people were permitted inside for the hearing, leaving the hundreds of others who had gone to downtown to wait outside in a park, where video showed them chanting and applauding.
The majority of the migrants were from Guinea and West African nations. Speaking with the NY Post, some claim that an activist group enticed them to city hall with the promise of work visas or green cards in exchange for their appearance.
Amadou Sara Bah, 44, moved from Guinea in November. “They assured me that they would enable me to get a work visa and a green card if I arrived here today,” she claimed.
Bah was anxious about the five-month waiting time after submitting an application for a work visa in March. He had spent several hours waiting with his buddies on a bench outside the municipal hall.
He told the NY Post, “There are a lot of people here, and we do not know how to receive the help they said would be here.” “To get a green card, I came here.” I am trying to find support.
Guinean Dial Lochitlio, 19, claimed that “elders in the community” advised him to visit city hall to apply for asylum.
“They instructed us to arrive on this day and at this hour so they could provide us with additional information,” he stated.
African Communities Together’s Assitan Makadii claimed he visited city hall after discovering that migrants were tricked into going there under false pretenses.
Makadii stated, “We are here to provide an explanation as they received some miscommunications.”
Because they are humans, they deserve everything and have nothing at all. All of us are humans,” Makadii continued. They are without a place to go. As you can see, I do not believe that the reason for [the city housing] is that they are all here because they are without a place to sleep.
The purpose of the joint City Council hearing on immigration and hospitals was to “understand how the Adams Administration is dealing with language access barriers, health needs, cultural challenges, and other roadblocks” that face migrants. The discussion focused on the experiences of migrants living in shelters.
Overcoming language hurdles has been one of the main challenges, particularly on a continent like Africa, where there are over 3,000 different languages spoken.
For the most part, this is a federal government problem. Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office on Immigrant Affairs, informed the council that they needed to improve the quality of their training in these languages.
When asylum seekers first started to arrive, the majority of them were from Venezuela, Ecuador, and other Spanish-speaking countries. However, we began to observe an increase in the number of international arrivals, so we are going through a little adjustment period,” Castro continued.