An out-of-control encampment has sprouted up at the once-placid Manhattan park in recent weeks — with migrants even setting up an illicit open-air market hawking drugs.
Scores of electric scooters also clog the pathways, zipping along at dangerous speeds on bicycle paths.The asylum-seeking outlaws have even tapped into city utility poles for electricity and commandeered water fountains for cooking and to bathe.A migrant lounges at the water’s edge on Randall’s Island near an unruly encampment that sprouted up at the once-popular Manhattan park in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, a group of private security guards hired by the city to guard the massive city-run shelter were instead spotted at the water’s edge by The Post on Wednesday smoking a joint.A migrant selling cigarettes at an illicit open-air flea market that has sprouted up on Randall’s Island in recent weeks.Asked about the mayhem, an NYPD cop stationed at the park to patrol the grounds agreed things were “getting out of hand.
However, it’s unlikely the filthy tent city will be gone for good. A smaller Randall’s Island encampment of about a half-dozen tents last year was taken down daily by the parks department only to sprout up the next day. “Inside Randall’s they don’t want to give shelter,” Venezuelan migrant Jesus Miravetti said Wednesday. “They don’t want to give us anything and then since we don’t have an ID or a partner, they throw us on the street and it’s difficult for us to get food.One bike-riding New Yorker told The Post this week that he tried to give directions to a migrant woman who asked him for train directions. He told her to get off at Central Park.
“Our policy on Randall’s Island is the same as it is across the city. For those individuals who are there, certainly we know with our 30 and 60 day rules that we continue to provide them with intensive case management.”