The Big Apple’s makeshift tent city at Floyd Bennett Field is getting a bad rap among migrants — with one asylum seeker family telling The Post on Tuesday they’ve been warned by others to stay away.
Ronald and Franyenlin Castillo, a Venezuelan couple who arrived from Texas four days ago with their three young kids, said they refused to be bused to the controversial Brooklyn facility after being told by another asylum seeker it wasn’t suitable for children.
“They said they were going to send us to Floyd Bennett Field yesterday,” Ronald, 23, told The Post outside The Roosevelt Hotel — the city’s main intake center in Midtown Manhattan.
“We did not go because we already know the situation over there. We saw people returned with children. They say it’s not suitable there. There is nothing there … not even a television.”
It comes just days after dozens of migrants were bused to the new Floyd Bennett Field facility — only for them to refuse to stay there. Before jumping back on the bus on Sunday, one father had raged to The Post that the remote site was “crazy.”
Meanwhile, the newly-arrived Venezuelan family claim that workers at the intake center said they and their children — aged 5 years, 3 years and 10 months — would be on their own if they didn’t take up the city’s offer of a bed at Floyd Bennett.
Ronald and Franyenlin Castillo, a Venezuelan couple who arrived from Texas four days ago with their three young kids, said they opted not to go to Floyd Bennett Field. Matthew McDermott
The couple say other migrant families told them not to stay at the makeshift tent city because it wasn’t suitable for kids. Matthew McDermott“They told me that if we didn’t take that address … they couldn’t help us and we were going to stay on the streets or go to another city in the United States,” Ronald said.
“We arrived four days ago and they sent us to the tent and we rejected it so they don’t want to help. They don’t want to show us anywhere else,” his sobbing wife added.
The family claim they have been sleeping on chairs in the lobby of The Roosevelt Hotel since they were bused to the Big Apple several days ago.
“Right now we have nowhere to stay,” the father said. “Sleeping in the chair is the safest thing I see.”
“We are going to be on the streets with the babies,” he added.
The Floyd Bennett site, which was marred by controversy ahead of opening, is designed to cater for 2,000 migrants. Gregory P. Mango
Migrants get back on a bus to leave the tent city after arriving on Sunday. Gregory P. MangoA City Hall spokesperson said the family, like the others who already left Floyd Bennett, would still have a bed there if they needed it.
“There’s a still a place for them at Floyd Bennett, if they go to the Roosevelt, they will given a place a Floyd Bennett,” the spokesperson said, adding they weren’t aware of anyone sleeping at the welcome center.
When asked about the situation at Floyd Bennett early Tuesday, Adams said there wasn’t much the city could do now.
“It would be a plus if we can eventually reach a level where we will be self sustaining and we don’t need Floyd Bennett,” he said. “But right now, I don’t see that happening anytime in the immediate future.”
Family claim that workers at the intake center said they and their children — aged 5 years, 3 years and 10 months — would be on their own if they didn’t take up the city’s offer of a bed at Floyd Bennett. Matthew McDermottThe Floyd Bennett site, which was marred by controversy ahead of opening, is made up of four congregate sleeping dorms designed to cater for 2,000 migrants, including children.
Floyd Bennett is one of the more than 200 shelters set up by the city to cater for the relentless influx of migrants that have poured into the Big Apple since the asylum seeker crisis escalated in spring 2022.
More than 139,500 asylum seekers have moved through the system since then and some 65,600 migrants are still in the city’s care, according to City Hall’s latest tally.
