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Most migrant families that were sleeping at Logan are now elsewhere
The emptying of the airport comes days after the Healey administration announced migrants would no longer be allowed to sleep there.
Only a few migrant families remained at Logan Airport’s Terminal E this weekend following Gov. Maura Healey’s Friday announcement that sleeping overnight at the airport will no longer be allowed as of July 9.
Boston 25 News reported there were only a handful of migrant families on the Emergency Assistance shelter waitlist at the airport on Saturday.
The state offered transfers to families sleeping at Logan to locations in the new safety-net system, including a former prison in Norfolk, which opened as a shelter site last week. The new site can accommodate up to 140 families at total capacity.
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Jeffrey Thielman, president and CEO of the International Institute of New England, which serves immigrant families in the region, told Boston 25 News that this was the right step by the state.
“We can provide them better services,” Thielman told Boston 25 News. “[Migrant families] are on top of one another. It’s not that comfortable. They’re sleeping on the floor.”
Thielman, who regularly speaks with families at Logan Airport, said many came to the state looking for work.
Residents in Norfolk criticized the new safety-net site, saying the state did not notify local officials until the plans were already in motion and that it will place an undue burden on the town of about 11,000.
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Thielman told Boston 25 News, “Over time, these people will become your friends and neighbors. They will get into the school system and become friends with your kids. They will eventually integrate into the community as all immigrants do.”
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