Haitians still displaced after 2010 quake
2012-12-21 20:38
Video
2012-01-13 09:16
Two years on, many earthquake survivors are still rebuilding their lives. Joseph Naomi, a single mother, lived in a tent in one of the capital’s public squares for almost two years before finally moving into a house.WATCH
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Haiti
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Geneva - Nearly three years after a catastrophic
earthquake in Haiti, some 360 000 Haitians are still living in emergency camps,
the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday.
"At least 84% of the population living in camps in
2012 was already there in 2010, which confirms that most probably they have
been living at these sites since the January 2010 earthquake," the IOM
said in a statement.
All of Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the
Americas scarred by dictatorships and political upheavals, is still struggling
to recover after the 12 January 2010
earthquake that killed 250 000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
But the situation is especially difficult for around 90
000 families, or 360 000 individuals, who remain in the country's 496 camps,
the IOM said.
The organisation, which has partnered with local Haitian
groups to help the displaced, stressed that most of the families were living in
emergency tarpaulin and makeshift wooden structures and that 58% remain
unemployed while most were living in single-parent households.
The organisation also pointed out that around 86% of
those living in the camps did not own a home and would need to rent to be able
to leave the camps.
These families need help to find alternative housing
outside the camps within the next two years, "to avoid the risk of
violence, possible secondary displacement and forced eviction," the IOM
said.
Since 2011, the international community has helped more
than 635 000 people leave the camps through a government-led programme.
The IOM said it had provided nearly 12 000 families, or
48 000 individuals, with one-year rental subsidies to find alternative housing,
and that it aimed to help another 15 000 families do the same next year.
It, meanwhile, appealed for $2m to help finance its
continued work inside the camps.
"The international community must not abandon Haiti
now," IOM Haiti mission chief Gregoire Goodstein insisted, pointing out
that many other organisations had been forced to leave due to lack of funds.
