Migrants have set up a “mini-city” in New York after the Big Apple witnessed a major surge in arrivals.
The asylum seekers even established their own night time market which includes eateries and hairdressers.
Police officers and sanitation workers previously attempted to clear out dozens of migrants living in tents under the BQE at Park Avenue and Hall Street in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill.
Migrants continued to move to the area after leaving a shelter at nearby 47 Hall Street.
A local father told The New York Post: “The problem hasn’t gotten any better, it’s gotten worse and continues to get worse.
“I’d rather see the tents. It literally looks and smells horrible down there now.”
Migrants have decided to create open-air homes after tents were previously taken down.
The homes include cramming mattresses, tables and other accessories between rows of parked vehicles.
Protest against migrants in New YorkReuters
Migrants living under the BQE tend to come from Latin American countries or are French-speaking Africans.
Another resident fumed: “There’s smells of urine and trash everywhere, and it’s just sad that the city doesn’t seem to care about the people that live here, that are from here, that pay taxes.
“New Yorkers seem to be second-class citizens in all of this — and that’s the most upsetting part of it all.”
A 35-year-old Ecuadorian migrant named Byron Espinoza set up his own barber business which includes a mirror and white chair.
People seeking asylum sit outside a shelter built to house newly arrived migrants on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Facility in Queens
REUTERS
He charges “$15 per haircut” and gets about eight customers per day.
Fellow Ecuadorian Jose Caiza spent 30 days at the Hall Street shelter before ending up on the street.
The 48-year-old said: “It’s very hard.
“[The immigration system] has no heart. We are human beings.
“We have the right to seek opportunities in our lives.”