Wanted: NYC workers who speak Spanish to volunteer on migrant crisis

City employees are being asked to volunteer multiple 12-hour shifts — in lieu of their normal duties — to help direct and manage busloads of new migrants expected to arrive at newly opened “emergency respite sites,” according to a copy of an email shared with Gothamist.

Mayor Eric Adams’ Chief of Staff Camille Varlack sent a memo to city workers on Sunday saying City Hall is looking for volunteers who can commit to working twice a month between either the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. or 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Varlack added that those who sign up must ask their supervisors if they can be excused from their “traditional work duties.”

The call for volunteers within an already strained municipal workforce reflects the mayor’s increasing urgency toward the migrant crisis, which he has repeatedly said is already testing the city’s safety net systems and will cost more than $4 billion over the next two years.

Of the roughly 61,000 asylum-seekers that have arrived since last spring, the city is caring for more than 37,500 in emergency shelters and other facilities.

The plea for help with staffing also comes as New York City officials are bracing for the end of a pandemic-era border policy on Thursday that is expected to usher in another wave of migrants, many of whom are fleeing violence and poverty in Latin America.

The memo notes that the city is in particular need of volunteers who can communicate in Spanish.

“As the vast majority of asylum-seekers speak Spanish, we are most in need of volunteers that have some Spanish language competency,” Varlack wrote.

Someone who works in one of the mayoral agencies covering about 1,000 people shared Varlack’s email with Gothamist. But employees in two other departments said they have received similar requests to volunteer.

A different email that went out on Monday noted that the city is most in need of site managers, but also could use “general support, security, cleaning and other human-service-related…