The United Nations migration agency says internal displacement in Haiti, largely caused by gang violence, has tripled in the past year and now exceeds one million people – a record in the Caribbean country .
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Tuesday that “relentless gang violence” in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has fueled a near doubling of displacement and a collapse in health care and other services, as well as a worsening of the situation. food insecurity. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world.
“The latest data reveals that 1,041,000 people, many of whom have been repeatedly displaced, are struggling amid an escalating humanitarian crisis,” the Geneva-based agency said in a statement. Children represent more than half of the displaced population.
This figure represents a three-fold increase in displacement compared to 315,000 in December 2023, the IOM said.
Agency spokesperson Kennedy Okoth told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva that the forced return of about 200,000 people – mostly from the neighboring Dominican Republic – to Haiti in over the past year had worsened the crisis. The two countries share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
Okoth said the number of displacement sites in Port-au-Prince increased from 73 to 108 over the last year.
At least 110 people were killed in Haiti’s Cité Soleil slum when a gang leader targeted elderly people he suspected of causing his child’s illness through witchcraft , according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.
The outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has strongly supported and expanded a temporary status program, which allows certain foreign nationals from countries including El Salvador, Haiti and Venezuela to remain in the United States.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have suggested they will reduce reliance on the temporary status program and policies while continuing mass deportations. U.S. federal regulations would allow extensions to end sooner, although this has never been done before.
When asked if the IOM had any concerns about possible changes to these U.S. protections, Okoth declined to comment on any specific country.
But he said “expulsion or any forced return to countries that are already facing growing security and humanitarian challenges will not be something that will be beneficial to the group.”
