‘A humanitarian crisis’: Migrants dropped off at MBTA station with no place to go

QUINCY, Mass. — Boston 25 News was at the Wollaston T stop in Quincy on Wednesday when a bus dropped off migrants.

“Now we are facing a humanitarian crisis,” said Gladys Vega from La Collaborativa, a Chelsea-based nonprofit that helps with everything from domestic violence to homelessness.

We followed the bus back to Eastern Nazarene College where off-camera a worker told us that it was his job to take migrants to the T stop every day from 5 to 7.

He says a coworker picks them up there and brings them to this welcoming center every day between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

But once our cameras were spotted, this same driver was sent back to Wollaston station to pick up people he had just dropped off. However, only a few returned.

That’s when we met Gladys Vega. She is here to make sure no one was going to sleep here tonight and she has a message for migrants.

“People need to understand that we don’t have any more resources. I understand that. But the train station is not an option,” said Vega.

Last night she says she found 41 people at the Wollaston T Station, the night before it was 22. And she took them to an overflow shelter in Chelsea.

“Because I’m not going to let anyone sleep on the train,” she said.

Wednesday night she was happy to find no one.

But the problem is not solved. Governor Maura Healey admitted as much to Boston 25 News today.

“But at the end of the day, we’ve simply reached capacity so we are working on diverting them to other states. Re-ticketing them so they are able to go and live with a family,” said Governor Healey.

Vega agrees and says she is desperate to find family connections outside Massachusetts.

“Let’s make a couple of phone calls so that we can relocate you,” she said.

But at the end of the day, people keep coming and there remain few if any options to house them.

Migrants dropped at Quincy T station with no place to go

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