It turns out that the grass really isn’t greener on the other side of the fence, at least when it comes to the experience of some African migrants who only found disappointment after traveling to New York City.
One migrant who had spent his $9,000 life savings to come to America from Congo expressed his dismay over the conditions that he and others now must endure in comments to the Daily Mail.
“It’s like prison here,” said the man named Landry who spoke in French. “It’s negligence. We have no access to food, toilets, or anything. Animals live better here – pets in the street are treated better than us.”
Landry was among hundreds of homeless migrants who were waiting in line outside of a church in the East Village in Manhattan hoping to find a place to sleep amid bitterly cold winter conditions. The sanctuary city has been so overwhelmed by new arrivals that NYC Mayor Eric Adams recently warned that “people will soon be “sleeping on the streets.”
The 40-year-old military veteran who left his wife and teenage son behind four months ago to seek construction work said that while life in his native country was “terrible” it has been “even worse” in Gotham.
“The UN building is right there to talk about the problems around the world but look at all this on the doorstep… desperation and lack of services,” Landry, who said he had been bused in from California, told the outlet. “We were sold a dream in Hollywood films and TV, but the reality of life in New York City is not like the movies.”
“I cry and think, why did I do this? But it’s too late. I spent my life savings coming here and now I can’t get a job. What can I do?” Landry said when he was asked about how he felt thinking about the family he left behind to come to America.
Another migrant who came from Guinea told the Daily Mail that he had received shelter for the first few weeks after he got to New York City but has spent the last few days sleeping on the streets.
(Video: The Daily Mail.
“After one month they can put you outside,” the man whose name is Abdoulaye said. “Sleeping outside in the cold is too much. The situation is no good right now.”
According to the outlet, he said that he spent “$10,000 traveling through Turkey, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and Texas in pursuit of the American Dream.”
Two Ecuadorian women, 44-year-old Vivienna and 22-year-old Selena who were the only females in the long line outside the church on East 7th Street told the outlet that they had fled “danger” in their Latin American homeland only to end up sleeping on New York’s streets where they “don’t feel any safer.”
“We’re getting close to anywhere from 2,500 to peaking at 4,000 a week,” Mayor Adams said during an interview with Fox 5’s Rosanna Scotto earlier this week.
“We’re not just saying we’re out of room as a sound bite, we’re out of room literally. People are going to be eventually sleeping on the streets,” Adams said.
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