Geneva, January 14 (EFE).- More than one million of people were displaced forced in Haiti in 2024, three times more than the previous year (315,000), as a consequence of the insecurity and chaos caused by gang action criminals who control large areas of the country, according to data communicated this Tuesday by International Organization for the Migrations (IOM).
“We are facing the largest number of displaced people due to the violence of the gangs armed throughout the history of Haiti”the organization’s spokesperson commented in Geneva, Kennedy Okoth Omondi. At the same time that chaos has been taking over Haiti200,000 Haitians were returned to their country last year, most from the neighboring Dominican Republic.
In addition to the violence, he collapse of basic services, in particular of health care, and the growing food shortages have aggravated the situation.
The worst is experienced in the capital, Port-au-Princewhere the increase in displaced people has been 87%, as well as in the department of Artibonite, which experienced a threefold increase in displaced people (84,000 people).
The most serious impact of this crisis is suffered by children, who make up more than half of the displaced population, said the IOM.
Haitian communities receiving displaced people are also suffering great stress because their resources are limited in a situation in which 83% of displaced people depend on the help of family and friends, while the rest survive in improvised displacement sites.
Displacement sites, mainly in the capital, have grown rapidly and have gone from 73 to 108 in one year, several of them supported by the IOM and other organizations humanitarian.
“These are extremely overcrowded spaces that lack adequate access to essential services such as drinking water, sanitation, food and medical care,” the spokesperson said.
The IOM considers that the level of internal displacement is a clear sign that the international community must redouble efforts to stabilize security conditions in Haiti and provide more financial resources and humans to the Mission Multinational of Support to Security (MMAS), which has around 750 police officers deployed in Haiti. These personnel come mainly from Kenya, but also include members from the Bahamas, Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador. EFE
