Migrants in New York City are being offered free one-way plane tickets to anywhere in the world as the city contents with a crunch of resources due to an influx of people from the Southern border. According to the New York Post, New York Mayor Eric Adams has set up a new "reticketing centre" for the migrants where they can secure a free, one-way plane ticket out of town.
"With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants," a spokesperson for Mayor Adams said, as per the outlet. "Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys, and it helps us triage operations at The Roosevelt for new arrivals," they added.
Earlier this week it was revealed the daily cost of housing migrants in the city's care was around $394 per person - a cost which has risen in recent months. Now, instead of continuously paying a daily rate that could rise even further, Mr Adams is steering migrants to a Manhattan office devoted solely to booking plane tickets, figuring it's cheaper than sheltering them for months on end. He is simultaneously also warning that those opting to stay in New York may be in for a winter of sleeping outside with shelters full.
"When you are out of room, that means you're out of room," Mr Adams told reporters Tuesday. "Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There's no more room. That's where we are right now," he added.
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Notably, according to Politico, the new "reticketing" plan comes as the city deals with the 130,000 migrants arriving since last year. It also comes as the Mayor has imposed the 30-day limit for how long a single adult migrant can remain in a city-run shelter in a bid to free up space.
Some of the migrants who have taken up the city's offer have already booked plane tickets as far away as Morocco, the outlet reported.
Limits on shelter stays, combined with casework services that include "reticketing" to other places, are necessary to drive down the population in the city's care and make room for new arrivals, City Hall officials said.
