At Boston’s Logan International Airport, migrant families are lining a baggage claim surrounded by suitcases and using sparse blankets for makeshift mattresses. Migrants have been sleeping in the baggage area since last year after the Massachusetts shelters reached their 7,500 family capacity in November.
Families began staying at the airport while they sat on waitlists for facilities. However, the numbers coming in are not slowing down at all. The New York Post reports hundreds of migrants are currently sleeping on the floor, an “uptick in recent weeks from the dozens who were being housed there a few months ago.”
“We continue to see migrants at the airport” a representative from MassPort told Boston 25 News. “They come to Logan a number of ways. They also arrive at all hours.”
The New York Post reports:
But without the proper staff or resources to properly take care of a large population of residents, the migrants are transported out of the airport to state welcome centers daily, then brought back by night, MassPort said.
In the airport the migrants have less than ideal conditions, including cold air conditioning, hard floors, lights in their faces all night, and airport announcements keeping them awake, WBUR reported.
Migrants have been staying in the baggage area in Logan since last year after the state’s shelters reached their 7,500 family capacity in November, forcing people to sit on waitlists for the facilities to be housed at the airport.
To address the state’s growing migrant population, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced in May that a former prison about an hour southwest of Boston would be converted into a shelter for about 400 homeless families — including 150 spaces open for migrant families.
MassPort could not be reached for comment when contacted by The Post.
Airports across the country beyond Logan have become common tools for housing migrants.
The San Diego International Airport been used to house hundreds of migrants sleeping on its floors at a time, as has Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and theairport at El Paso in Texas.