$220 million contract with PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel cancelled
US authorities have announced the termination of
a three-year agreement to house asylum-seeking migrants at the Roosevelt Hotel,
owned by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The deal, valued at $220
million, was intended to accommodate migrants in the hotel located in
Manhattan, New York.
The decision to end the agreement was made following pressure from the US government and right-wing extremists, with New York Mayor Eric Adams announcing the closure of the migrant center on Monday. According to Pakistan's state news agency APP, the agreement faced criticism from Vivek Ramaswamy, an Indian-origin advisor recently appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. Ramaswamy criticized the arrangement on social media, calling it “insanity.”
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aide criticizes NYC’s $220m deal with Pakistan’s PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel
The Roosevelt Hotel had been closed during the
COVID-19 pandemic but reopened in May 2023 under a lease agreement between
PIA-Investment Limited (PIA-IL) and the New York City government. The
1,047-room hotel was leased for three years, with the deal bringing in $220 million
for Pakistan.
The hotel was used to house migrants, with reports indicating that up to 75% of the migrants arriving in New York were accommodated at the Roosevelt, with an estimated nightly cost of $200 per room. At its peak, the hotel housed thousands of migrants, but the influx has significantly decreased. The weekly number of migrant arrivals, which had been 4,000 in 2023, has dropped to just 350.
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Roosevelt Hotel in New York may attain cultural heritage status after 100 years
PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez explained to
the BBC that the hotel had been closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
with the decision made that keeping it closed was better than operating it. In
2023, however, an agreement was made between the New York City government and
the hotel workers’ union, which was approved by Pakistan’s Economic Coordination
Committee (ECC). Under this agreement, the 1,025 rooms of the Roosevelt Hotel
were leased for three years, with New York City covering necessary renovations
and paying $200 per room per night.
Despite the agreement’s cancellation, PIA remains impacted by the closure, and the fate of the hotel’s operations is now uncertain.
Source: Minute Mirror