‘AS SECURE AS IT CAN BE’
African immigs mass at City Hall
About 1,300 African migrants gathered outside City Hall Tuesday morning hoping to appear at a hearing on the black experience in the city shelter system — with some saying they were promised work visas or green cards if they showed.
Only 250 people were allowed inside for the 10 a.m. hearing, while the hundreds of others who flocked downtown were left outside in a park, where footage showed them chanting and cheering.
The crowd was mostly made up of new arrivals from Guinea in West Africa, and were apparently drawn to City Hall by an activist group, a source told The Post.
Dozens of migrants said they’d been told by others in the community that they could get work visas or green cards if they showed up.
“They told me that they would help me to get a work permit and a green card if I came here today,” explained Amadou Sara Bah, 44, who got to the US in November from Guinea, adding he wouldn’t have come to City Hall just for the hearing.
Bah said he was stressed about waiting for a work permit, for which he applied in March, noting it could take about five months to come through and he does not have a lawyer to speed up the process.
By 12:30 p.m., he and friends were still sitting on a bench near City Hall, but no one had offered to help them.
‘I’m looking for help’
“There are many people here and we don’t know how to get the help they told us would be here,” he told The Post. “I came here for a green card. I’m looking for help.”
Dial Lochitlio, 19, who got to New York from Guinea just four days ago and said he was seeking asylum, told The Post “elders in the community” told him to come to City Hall for information on work visas and housing.
A few hours later, he was still waiting and getting frustrated.
The City Council’s Committee on Immigration and Committee on Hospitals held the joint hearing on the experiences of African migrants in shelters to “understand how the [Adams] administration is addressing language access barriers, cultural competency challenges, health needs and other roadblocks” that the new arrivals face, a press release said.
A major issue is the city does not have adequate language services, officials said, noting Spanish and English speakers are given priority, leaving other new arrivals in the dark.
“This is mostly an issue that belongs to the federal government. They need to do better at providing training in these languages,” said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, told the council, noting there are nearly 3,000 languages spoken across Africa.
“Early on in the situation with the arrival of asylum-seekers, it was primarily Venezuelan, Ecuadorians and other Spanish-speaking asylum seekers. But we started seeing more people from across the world arrive so there’s a bit of an adjustment period that we’re undergoing,” Castro noted.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the event was a “very important hearing.”
“This is an issue for the entire nation and the entire nation needs to be responsible in the same way that New York City is being responsible,” she said.