NYC business owner illegally housed migrants in store’s basement, abandoned library: ‘Severe overcrowding’
A New York City business owner charged illegal migrants $300 per month to reside in his furniture store’s basement, a Bronx cellphone store, and an abandoned library, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Ebou Sarr, 47, told the news outlet that the New York Police Department shut down his hostile operations in January after they discovered he was allowing illegal West African migrants to reside in cramped and hazardous conditions.
Sarr explained that he converted the Old Fordham Library in the Bronx into a makeshift shelter. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Post, when police entered the location, Sarr stated, “I run it.”
“I help these people because they have nowhere to go. Shelters won’t accept us. I have proof of residency from the mayor … I have a business up the street, but this is where I live,” he reportedly said.
As a result of the illegal operation, Sarr was charged with two counts of trespassing on the abandoned property.
“It was a place that I think is empty, and it’s safe for us to put our people. We were trying to get the city to give us that library. It’s been there for so many years,” Sarr told the Post. “Places like that, they can put the people in. Fix the place and put the people in there.”
Sarr, who owns a South Richmond Hill furniture store, charged illegal migrants $300 per month to reside at one of his improvised hostiles.
Police reported “severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions” inside the abandoned library and the basement of the furniture store. A third location, a Bronx cellphone store, had “hazardous life-threatening conditions,” law enforcement said.
Since the three locations lacked bathroom facilities, residents used showers at a nearby gym.
Fallou Seye, 29, told the Post that “it was hard” to come up with the money to stay in the basement of the furniture store, a space he shared with 45 other people who were forced to share beds.
“We had no bathroom; we had to go to Planet Fitness to take a shower,” Seye explained.
Sarr reportedly provided each of the migrants with one meal per day and paid for the migrants’ gym memberships to use the showers.
According to Sarr, the rent money was a donation, and he never demanded more than the illegal migrants could afford. He also insisted that despite not getting permission to use the abandoned library, he did not break in either.
Sarr told the Post that he plans to fight the trespassing charges and sue the NYPD.
“We’ve lost a lot of money in that place because they took us out and didn’t give us a chance to get our properties,” he stated. “The guys lost their stuff. It was safe and that’s why we chose that place. It’s a big building.”
The news outlet reported that the now vacant makeshift hostiles are littered with garbage and reek of urine.
Neighbors accused Sarr of “taking advantage” of the illegal migrants.
“At least, if you want to take them and charge the money, let them live like human beings. I think he played with their mind,” one neighbor told the Post.
A nearby business owner told the news outlet that Sarr is “no good” and “a scammer.”
“People can say whatever they want to say,” Sarr responded. “They have their opinion. But the people that was with me wouldn’t say that.”
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