More than 1 million displaced in Haiti as gang violence rages, UN says

The United Nations migration agency says internal displacement in Haiti, largely caused by gang violence, has tripled over the past year and now exceeds one million people – a record in the Caribbean nation.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday that “relentless gang violence” in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has fueled a near doubling of displacement there and a collapse in health care and other services, and even worse. food insecurity. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world.

“The latest data reveals that 1,041,000 people, many displaced multiple times, are struggling amid an intensifying humanitarian crisis,” the Geneva-based agency said in a statement. Children make up more than half of the displaced population.

The figure marks a threefold increase in displacement from the 315,000 in December 2023, the IOM said.

Agency spokesman Kennedy Okoth told a UN briefing in Geneva that the forced return of some 200,000 people – mostly from the neighboring Dominican Republic – to Haiti in the past year had exacerbated the crisis. The two countries share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Okoth said the number of displacement sites in Port-au-Prince has grown from 73 to 108 in the last year.

WATCH | At least 110 people massacred by Haiti gang, rights group says:

Haiti gang massacres at least 110 people, rights group says

At least 110 people were killed in Haiti’s Cite Soleil slum when a gang leader targeted the elderly who he suspected of causing his child’s illness through witchcraft, the National Defense Network says of Human Rights.

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has strongly supported and expanded a temporary status program, which allows some foreigners from countries such as El Salvador, Haiti and Venezuela to stay in the United States.

US President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have suggested they scale back the use of the program and policies that grant temporary status, while pursuing mass deportations. US federal regulations would allow early termination of the extension, although this has never been done before.

Asked if the IOM had any concerns about possible changes to such US protections, Okoth declined to comment on any specific country.

But he said that “deportation or any forced returns to countries that are already facing growing security and humanitarian challenges is not something that will be beneficial for the group.”