The migrants staying at the Super 8 motel in Rotterdam have been forced to leave by the town because of a problem with the fire alarm system.

Town Councilman Joe Mastroianni tells NewsChannel 13 that the hotel has been on a fire watch over the past month due to four or five false alarms.

There are other fire code violations that have not been addressed, according to Mastroianni. There is also a natural gas leak, but officials have not determined from where it is coming.

Because of this, the building was determined to be not safe.

NewsChannel 13’s Dan Levy spoke with Bill Sherman, of Allies for Justice of Schenectady County. That is a volunteer social services organization that has been helping the migrants.

Sherman said he had heard about some concerns with the health and the safety of the hotel back in December and some families have told the organization about unsafe circumstances.

“We don’t understand why all of a sudden, just last night, it was decided that they had to leave,” he said.

A total of 64 students attend Mohonasen schools.  

Superintendent Shannon Shine said there are plans in place to get the students to school from the new hotels and motels where they are staying now.

He said he learned that the students are staying at six different motels and hotels.

“These guys have had a rough go and a pretty harsh transition. And of course, there’s a lot of, politics surrounding the issue. But that’s not our purview. We’re just here to serve kids, so this is a pretty darn good place for them to be,” he said.